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Bu

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

THE FORUM

I<

^

' -* J J

■»*-•

' Demolishing the Houses Purchased

Mb, L. Phillips (ISOfi)

urS IN

• J '* « • r.

KAl)i;LLF;Y

KS, WITH A MAP
..K OF THE

1*

k •

;g cross road

1? reserved]

TW

^

W-'

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

THE FORUM

I898-I9O4

BY AN EYE-WITNESS

W^Ur^-^SJ. CLAIR BADDELEY

BEING A HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS, WITH A MAP

MADE FOR THIS WORK BY ORDER OF THE

DIRECTOR OF THE EXCAVATIONS

AND 45 ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD

1904

[All rights reserved]

• •

Printed by BALllirfttr*, ttlNSotf <V C(^
At the Balkuityne Press

t

^

5*

o

TO

LIONEL PHILLIPS, Esq.

IN MEMORY OF DAYS IN

THE FORUM

r

PREFATORY NOTE

I HAVE heard life in the Forum likened unto * La Citt^
Morte,' wherein the malign influences of ancient crimes
rise up from the soil and evilly affect those who live
upon the site. I have also heard it declared to be a
place dangerous to physical health. It is with gratifi-
cation, therefore, after living therein, both beneath
it and above, as few can have done, for considerable
portions of the last six years, that I can bring solid
evidence to belie both accusations. They indeed would
prove far more applicable if levelled at certain other
august centres of Rome. For I find it necessary to
return thanks here for valuable assistance given to
me without hesitation and at all times, not only by my
personal friend Comm. Giacomo Boni and those of his
staff, but by each and all of the workmen and custo-
dians down to the humblest, under his direction. I
have known none of them seriously ill or affected by
malign spirits ; nor have I ever seen even a frown on
any official face there except once, and that was when a
lady graduate kept calling the official museum * Excu-
bitorium Yigilarum'; but even that changed happily
upon learning that a Maltese cicerone had been heard
the same day informing his English and American
clients that 8. Paul had stood upon the Black Stone
before Festva, and that this was how the Niger Lapis

viii PREFATORY NOTE

came to be discovered, *Comm. Boni being a most zealous
student of S. FauPs work in Rome.' Neither have I
actually known any one to deny the fascination of the
Forum and of these excavations excepting the late Mr.
Whistler, who sniffed and said to me, ' Ruins don't
count,' and went away to Paris, after but two days*
visit, calling Rome * jaune ville de stucco.'

Among other works to which recourse has been made
in writing this Handbook, I wish to express obligations
to the monumental volume by Mr. Neville Rushforth
on Sta. Maria Antiqua; to the clear and incisive
Ausgrabungen auf dem Forum Bomanum of my friend
Professor Ohr. Huelsen; to the valued *Analecta'
of Hermann Grisar, S.J., and to his excellent Roma
nd Medio £vo ; and, above all, to the numerous works
of the Director of the Excavations, supplemented, as
they have been, from the first by private letters and
photographs. I am also indebted to Mr. Francis
Tuckett, F.S.A., for the use of certain photographs of
his taking, and to the Editor of the Olobe for permission
to make use of contemporaneous notices of some of the
* discoveries ' communicated by me to his journal. The
view taken from a balloon is from a photograph by
Oapt. Moris, R.E.

ST. OLAIR BADDELEY.

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Fobuh and Fo&a 1-3

Obibntation 3-4

Matebials 4-6

comitium 7-24

Aboh of Seyebus 24

VOLOANAL 24-27

Temenos Vbst^ 27-28

Reoia 28-34

Vesta 35-46

Temple of Julius Gjbsab 46-47

Equus Dohitiani 47-51

GALLBBIES of CiBSAB 51-58

Flavian Rostba 63

ROSTBA of GJBSAB 64-55

Abch of Tibebius 55

Museum (Official) 56

basilica JBmilia 56-60

Gloaca 60

Venus Cloacina 63

Temple of Bacchus 68

ix

r

CONTENTS

PAOS

Gliyus Saoba Via 68-65

Aboh op Titus 66

JuPiTBB Statob 66

Clivus Falatinus 67

Gabcbbbs 68

Sbpulobbtum 70-74

Babilioa of Mazbntius 74

Gabtob and thb Auousteum 75-77

Sta. Mabia Antiqua 77-97

OBATOBY of FOBTY MABTYB8 97

Sta. Fbanoesoa Romana 97-99

fons jutubnjs 99

Nova Via 108

Altab of Fbace 103-106

Lacus Gubtius 106

Sacba Via 109

Styles of Wobk 112

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Demolishing the Houses Purchased by Mr. L.

Phillips (1899) Frontupiece

CoMM. BoNi directing Bxcavation at the Niger

Lapis 7

South Side of Niger Lapis (R.) 8

Niger Lapis from South 8

Sacra Via just before the Finding of Niger

Lapis 9

CoMiTiuM Excavations (Jan. 1899-Maroh 1900) 10-11

Forum Romanum from a Balloon .... 13
Early Republican (North) Margin of Forum, near

Niger Lapis (1900) 16

Excavation at Niger Lapis (Gomm. Boni) .17

The Curia (from Basilica Julia) .... 18

Wall of Vestal Tbmbnos 27

The Door and Laurbl of Regia (Looking South-
west) 27

Round Sacrabium of Mars in the Regia ... 28

South Wall of Regia (Republican) .... 32

Work at the Tholos in the Regia .... 32

Within Cella Stercoraria of ^des Vest^e . 35

Locus Intimus (Vbst^) ....... 38

Tank, or Vasca, in Atrium Vest^ .... 38

xi

1

xu LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAOK

Basb of Altab in ^drs Divi Julii . . . . 46

robtba of juuus c^sab 54

Excavation to Discover the Basilica Emilia 57

Circular Podium of Vbnus Cloacina, with Plat-
form of Basilica Emilia 57

South-Bast Corner Stone of Basilica Emilia . 58

BXCAVATINO THE BASIUCA ^MILIA .... 58

Basilica Emilia (With bases of Africano Columns) 69

Fragments of Frieze of Basilica Emilia . 60

Marble Riquadbo (Found 19(X)) 62

Cuvus Sacra Via (During Excavation, 1900) . . 62

Clivus Sacra Via • 62

GuRVBN Entablature of Temple of Bacchus . . 63

Wells beside Cuvus Sacra Via 64

Sttlobate of Venus Cloacina 64

Clivus Sacba Via (During Excavation, 1899) 65

Cuvus Sacba Via (Looking East) ..... 66

Undeb Abch of Titus 67

Cabcebes(7) 68

Hut Ubn (the Door removed) 71

Basilica Maxentiana (From East) .... 74

Foundations of Temple of Castob .... 76
Fbaoment of Pediment of Castob and Pollux

(Found 1901) 77

AUOUBTEUM (From South) 82

(Hadbian's) Auousteum, from the Vicus Tuscus 82
Altab and Puteal in Fbont of the Shbine of

JUTUBNA 100

Shbine of Jutubna and Altab 101

Pool, ob Lacus, of Jutubna . . .102

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN
THE FORUM

(1898-1904)

THE FORUM

On visiting the Forum the first surprise experienced
usually is caused by the smallness of its area in com-
parison with its vast historical importance. "We say
to ourselves, is it possible that the Roman world, even
of CsBsar's time, could have transacted its business in
such restricted limits? moreover, in limits so crowded
with separate buildings of all sizes ? At first this seems
to be as great a difficulty as that which confronted some
of those who saw the Bostra of OsBsar excavated, namely,
could that humble arcaded platform, so simply though
so neatly and admirably constructed, be indeed the
world-famous Bostra ? Is it worthy of so great a figure
as OsBsar? Is the jewel commensurate with what we
imagine must have been the setting ?

The difficulty is, no doubt, in ourselves. We must
not love OsBsar less, but Rome the more. We are
looking back at remains of the OsBsarian Rome through
the magnifying historical medium of the World-empire,
and are consequently trying to fit the larger to the
smaller in too sudden a manner. The result is a visual
confusion — perhaps, disappointment. Those Rostra of

A

2 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

CflBsar became inadequate to the necessities of forensic
life under the empire ^ before the first century a.d. was
completed. Hence the Flavian emperors or Trajan
erected those nobler and far ampler ones which we now
see (restored) in front of them. In like manner, too, the
Forum, the old Forum Romanum itself^ had in Caesar's
and Cicero's days become equally inadequate to the busi-
ness life of their time; wherefore Cicero, in b.g. 54,
describes the grand undertaking of Lucius iEmillius
Paullus in rebuilding his superb family monument, the
National Exchange, as a buying up of private houses * ut
Forum laxaremusy* t.e. to enlarge the Forum. Expensive
as the great utilitarian scheme inevitably was, the en-
largement could take place only upon that northern side.
CsBsar followed on by buying, with part of the same
monies (i.e. the spoils of the Gallic War), more houses
and ground, west and north of the Curia, so as to form
the Forum Julium. We know that Augustus presently
extended this area further northward still, that Ves-
pasian, Domitian, and Nerva each in turn extended these
eastward, thereby creating the Forum Transitorium and
Forum Pacis ; and finally, that Trajan cut away a pro-
jecting spur of the Quirinal on the north-west of the
Forum of Augustus, and by so doing completed the great
movement developed by Paullus and Ciesar, with the
noblest f oinim of all, called after him, the Forum Trai-
anum, or Ulpianum.

So that, in reality, could we from some vantage point
look down and survey all these conjoined imperial fora,
together with their original parent, the one Forum

^ One more reason for their becoming so was because Tiberias,
in erecting the Arch to Germanicns, had selected a site on the
little Cassarian street between the Basilica Jnlia and the Fomm,
which involved the sacrifice of two of the recesses of the arcade.

THE FORUM 3

alone now completely exposed for us, that surprise
above adverted to would not partake of the nature of a
disappointment. We should see below us the entire
family of Fora. We should survey a space covering
many thousands of square yards, rich amazingly with
temples, basilicas, and columns, white with dazzling
marbles and white-robed people, golden with gilt-
bronze statues, and here and there beautifully green
with favoured and sacred trees and flowers, — adequate,
moreover, to the needs even of the mighty Empire. I
say trees and flowers, because Augustus had loved and
valued them, and we read that " compitales lares ornare
bis anno instituit vernis floribus et aestivis."

The next surprise is created by finding that, although
most of the edifices in the Forum are set in confor-
mity with what seems to be the natural suggestion of
the situation, fitting themselves, that is to say, to the
lines given by the north side of the Palatine Hill and
the east side of the Capitoline, yet certain of them, the
Begia, the remains of the Domus Publica near it, the
Shrine, or ^dicola, of Juturna, the catch-j)it of the
round podium of the ^des Yestae, and the monuments
under the Niger Lapis, are set at quite a different
angle. Then there is the Templum Sacrse Urbis of
Vespasian (SS. Cosma and Damiano), and the pavement
of the Lacus Curtius (made to correspond with the direc-
tion of the Cloaca Maxima), set at even another angle.

The explanation is that until Csesar's day most of the
public buildings in Rome, in disregard of appearances,
had been orientated in agreement with the solar path,
more or less correctly ; that is, with the line drawn N.--S.
by the augur with his lituus or wand. Oatulus had
already observed the newer orientation in building the
Tahtdanum (b.c. 78). At the height of his power and

4 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

authority Caesar found himself able to disregard certain
traditions, this one of Orientation among them ; and
in his rehabilitation of the Forum he adopted for his
building-scheme the orientation suggested by the lines
of the adjacent elevations. His tendency, it is manifest,
was not religious but expedient, nor did he need to alter
all the buildings. Some exceptions are already noted.
But wherever the spade has descended in order to
display early levels, or has discovered very ancient
foundations, the original and correct orientation is at
once remarked. Caesar, at any rate, if not the first to
adopt it, was the first to establish the later setting on
an extended scale. After his date, whenever an edifice,
such as the Temple of Castor, suffered from fire or earth-
quake sufficiently to need rebuilding, the early orienta-
tion was abandoned in favour of the new, and for the
benefit of general appearance or'symmetrical conformity.

With possession of this simple fact we may make
quick progress in discriminating between Republican
and Imperial remains. But one more acquisition is
needed, and a little practice will soon help to make us
masters of that likewise, namely, some slight knowledge
of the materials employed.

This falls under seven heads. They comprise : —

I. Tufo, a volcanic conglomerate, of which four
varieties are used in the Forum : (1) Tufo guHkistro,
of a dark greenish yellow hue ; (2) Uonato^ a harder
variety, of a reddish or chocolate tone (c/. blocks of the
podium of the ^Edes Yest») ; (3) Tufo peperirio, which
is grey, and called so from its resembling pepper. It
comes from the Alban Hills (c/. the wall of the Temple
of Faustina) ; (4) Tufo nerastrOf a dark variety.

II. Travertino. — ^This is a highly porous stone of a
creamy whiteness, being a deposit of carbonate of lime

THE FORUM 5

made by the Anio. The chief beds used by the Romans
are near Bagni, on the way to Tivoli. Exposed to
weather, travertine, as seen in the Coliseum, can take
on brilliant chrome and reddish tones, as well as a kind
of silvery efflorescence. It is frequently found framing
doors and arches, and in Republican pavements.

III. Selce, or lava bamLtina, of a daiic grey colour
and extremely hard ; used anciently, in polygonal blocks,
for paving the open streets and roads both in the Forum
and beyond the city.^ The ancients dressed its surface
smooth and flat with chisels ; the medisevals hammered
it only into rounded lumps. The moderns do still
worse. It comes from the veins descending from the
Alban Mount, one of which reached as far as the neigh-
bourhood of Cecilia Metella's tomb, on the Via Appia.

lY. lAarble, of many varieties, sparingly used before
CaBsar's date, and increasingly used and imported down
to the fourth century, for pavements, columns, veneer
panels^ and mouldings. The white marbles alone are
of five or six varieties in the Forum — Parian, Pentelic,
and Luna (Carrara) are the most usual. There are
besides grey and red Egyptian granites ; and porphyry,
red> green^ and black and white.

Y. Brick, Tiles, and Terra-cotta. — ^The Romans used
bricks of several sizes and shapes — square, oblong,
triangular (for facings), and occasionally (for columns)
circular. Of these the triangular were solely employed
for facings ; the square (8-inch) tegulce beasaleSj for piloB
in hypocausts ; the large (tegtUoe btpedales and sesqui-
pedales) for arches, drain-vaults, oven-floors, and courses
in walls of tufo reticulate work. The oblong were used

^ The peoples whom the Romans subdued used the polygonal
style in construoting their walls and gates. The conquerors,
however, are only found using it to walk upon.

r

6 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

as we use them to-day. Very small ones were used for
pavements of opt^ %'picaium {spica, * a wheatear '). See
the floor of the passage leading from S. Maria Antiqua
up to the Palace.

Terra-cotta was employed for hollow or tubular tiles,
for conveying heat up walls of rooms from hypocausts,
or rain down them, and for pavements and floors in the
days of Csesar and Augustus (opus signinum), as in the
rostral recesses, as well as for decorative friezes, anti-
flxse, and mouldings.

VI. ConcreteB of several varieties were used at
different dates, both for foundations, vaults, and wall-
cores, chiefly composed of one or other of the materials
above-mentioned, mixed in a' medium of pozzolana, a
coarse chocolate volcanic earth found in the Campagna^
and lime. Selce occurs in all ; selce, travertine, and
marble in many. The binding quality of the cement dif-
fers considerably, and is naturally least excellent in the
latest work ; though Maxentius (306-312) made it well.

VII. Wood. Oak (quercus rohur\ poplar, pine,
used in the upright posts and horizontal boards em-
ployed in casting concrete foundations, as exposed to
view in the foundations of the Temple of Faustina, in
that of the Equus Domitiani, and in a passage from the
Stadium (Palatine) to the Domus Augustana (house of
Augustus). The upper storeys, balconies, stairs, and
roofs of Roman houses were constructed of the same
materials ; but those who could aflcord cedar and cypress
preferred them, as resisting insect-life.

If, therefore, we walk down into the Forum on a
sunny morning, when the brilliant, youth-giving Roman
light bathes its ruined buildings with joy, all their
varieties of texture and colour will be at once easily
seen and soon appreciated ; browns, greys, whites, and

' fl) 1 ■* 4 J

*"'^OHM. BoNi directing Excavation at the Niger Lapis

THE FORUM 7

chromes forming beautiful chords of colour, let aloue the
plots of iris, laurel, and oleander, and the abundant roses.

The Excavaiions were commenced ^ by Oommendatore
Boni in December 1898, after being long and thoroughly
pondered by him, and in the teeth of spiteful opposition
and envious depreciations. The removal of the mediae-
val paving-stones some sixteen yards east of the Arch
of Severus presently exposed the Niger Lapis, or black
marble pavement — popularly known as the Niger Lapis,
' Tomb of Romulus.' Let us, therefore, begin at this
point ; and, indeed, no more befitting one could well be
selected ; for situated, as the spot is, in front of the
Curia or Senate-house, rebuilt by Diocletian (a.d. 284-
305) on the site of former ones (and which the late
Detlefsen so acutely identified), this was adjudged by
the explorer to correspond to the position of the
*Comitium.' It should be remembered that the
street passing through the Arch of Severus was only
an addition of the sixteenth century.

The Comitium was a small inaugurated area in front of
the Curia, fenced off from the adjacent streets (E. and W. )
and the Forum, and originally used (1) by the Patrician
Burgesses, who collected in it to vote ; (2) by the Prstor
Urbanus, who in it exercised his magisterial authority,
seated upon a tribunal ; (3) and by various of the most
important priesthoods upon stated feast-days, i.e. by
the chief priest of Rome, the Rex Sacrorum, or repre-
sentative of the religious functions of the kings, who
sacrificed at an altar within it ^ ; by the Salii, or
dancing priests of Mars, who danced and sang the

^ He first searched the Cella and Podiam of Vesta, then the
site of the altar of Jalins Ciesar, then the prolongation of the
Flavian Rostra.

^ February 24. The Regifnginm. Qoando rex comitiavit fas.

8 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Carmen Saliare in it; and by the Yestals, who
there celebrated a portion of one of the most ancient
sacrificial rites of the Roman religions, namely, the
Fordicidia (Ap. 15), or sacrifice of pregnant cows, the
ashes of whose calves were to be used as a sympathetic
charm for procuring fertility to the crops, after being
mixed with the flour of the Mola salsa, or sacramental
cake made by them. It was, besides, adorned with the
Ficus rumindlis, or sacred fig-tree, transported thither,
like the wolf, miraculously (it was held) from the Luper-
cal on the south-west angle of the Palatine ; and, in
the course of time, it became further decorated with a
number of favoured statues, such as those of Attus
Navius, the augur, who cut the whetstone with a razor ;
of Horatius Cocles ; of Marsyas, the piper of Celsena,
who rashly competed with Apollo, and lost his life for his
presumption ; that of Alcibiades, and a Puteal, above
the spot where the razor and whetstone had been buried.
But besides these the Comitium included a locus religiosus
et fimestus ^ of primary ritual importance, namely, the
reputed or intended burial-place of the founder of Rome.
Yarro says that Romulus was buried behind the Rostra,
that is, from the Forum. If that was so, the ancient
rostra (Rostra Vetera) stood in its immediate vicinity,
and from them funeral orations were delivered.^ On
January 11, 1899, there came to light the above-
mentioned pavement, composed, as one may see, of
slabs nine inches think (27 cms.), like a mourning veil,
made of Marmor Celticum,^ measuring twelve feet by
thirteen and a half, fenced in on three sides by irregular,
upright slabs of white marble, taken from late imperial

^ Like the Tarpeian rock.

' Ut mortal laadarentar.

' Not Tssnariam, as at first was thought.

3-S.
§1

r Z'

«

• * •

• • •.

4>
t

r

• •

^

• 5 J W J

Sacra Via just before the Finding of Nigbb Lapis

THE FORUM 9

buildings, and set in a frame of travertine. Beneath
this frame occurred another one of the same material
and rather better in make, presenting, moreover, the
earlier orientation; and under that occurred the tufo
pavement of a yet earlier period, telling us surely that
the precious and unique black pavement, which must hide
secrets we were hoping to see revealed, had been raised
and re-orientated to suit the levels of Imperial times.

The exploration of the spot was deferred until the
early summer of 1899, by which time through all the
cracks and joints of the black stones arose a perfect
embroidery of the small convolvulus,^ or bindweed, the
long, white, cord-like roots of which were presently
found starting from deep layers of sacrificial and other
strata covering the various early monuments soon to
be revealed below. Those who saw it will not forget
the sight. Layer by layer was now carefully scruti-
nised, and first there was found the truncated and
uninjured tufo cone set upon a rectangular base. Next
appeared the broken stela, tallest of the monumental
relics by 7 cms. Then were laid bare the two parallel
pedestdU^ accurately facing north, conjoined on the
south side by a broad band of the same masonry, and so
forming a frame-base. These pedestals displayed bold
Etruscan moulding well-preserved, though the eastern
one was broken and wrenched a little. The fragments
of the latter retain the positions in which they were
discovered, but they have been fitted with metal covers
to preserve them from the weather.

Between them and equi-distant occurred a sacrificial

1 How different from the cypresses which probably once
stood here by itifune^ta et cUra! Cypresses were asually planted
by Roman tombs.

3 2 m. 61 cms. in length ; by 1 m. 30 cms. in width.

10 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

stone, or oblong base of tufo, while behind them lay
remains of a long altar of the same material. Whatever
had stood upon these pedestals and foundations in old
times had entirely vanished. But Yarro having men-
tioned that two lions were said to have been placed at
the Tomb of Romulus, naturally the pedestals have been
associated wibh the idea ; and, indeed, lions have been
found in Etruria, used decorative! y and symbolically
for a similar purpose. But no vestige of the missing
ones has been found hera

Near the westernmost pedestal stands the monolithic
tufo cone, perhaps representing a present Divinity. At
a distance of but four feet behind this is seen the in-
scribed quadrangular stela, or square post, more than
one-half of which had been demolished, and it was found
to be wrenched slightly askew from its base. Bevilled
on each of its angles, it is inscribed with large archaic
lettering on all the four sides and on one bevil. After
much natural controversy the inscription, imperfect as
of course it is, is held to relate to the sacred spot where
it was found, and to refer to sacred appointments, such
as Sacrifices and Feasts. It ends with the excommuni-
catory * Jovts estod,* i,e, * Let him be slain.'

The whole of these monuments were enveloped with
sacrificial material resting upon sandy breccia and a
layer of white pebbles.

The sacrificial stratum proved rich in votive remains,
mostly of archaic character, including figurines of bronze
and bone, beads, dice, pottery, rings, knuckle-bones,
spindle-whorls, and fibulse, the most curious and first-
found of which was an ugly figurine of a hydrocephalic
augur (?) with a curved wand or lituus held in his hands
transversely. All these objects are now in the little
official museum on the Clivus Sacra Yia. Several

COMITIVM
EXCAVATIONS

JAN 1899. MARCH 1900.

/ LION PBDESTALS.

2. NiG£R LAPiS: Dotted Line,

3. ALTAR 'BASE.

4. BONEFiCVMNES.
S. BRONZe D9

6. pyrei^s, pp- ^^^^

THE FORUM 11

pieces (chips) of the rare black marble occurred among
them, as if purposely held to be sacred and votive.
Kone had smooth sides. The bones of the sacrificial
victims proved to belong to bulls, boars, and rams:
suovetaurilia. Some also belonged to a dog and a wolf.
Altogether twenty-three strata were distinguished in
the excavation at or around this point, which have since
been increased to twenty-seven in exploring neighbour-
ing portions of the Oomitium, and the Forum proper.

There remains to be noted: (1) that no relics of
Bomulus were to be found ; (2) that all the monu-
ments had suffered violence ; (3) then had been de-
liberately smothered with sax;rificial material at no
extremely remote period ; (4) committed to the gods of
the Lower World, and covered over with a solid and
unique pavement of black marble. The stela and
pedestals considerably antedate the period of the Gallic
invasion, and thus are not likely to have escaped the
wreck and pollution of the revered monuments at that
period. This admitted, they would have been cleansed
and expiated after the departure of the Gaul. But the
upper strata around the stela (which, even in its broken
condition, is the tallest of the group of monuments), in
spite of some of their contents, do not admit of identifi-
cation with so early a date ; while it seems probable
that the black marble pavement has once or twice
been raised from its original level, which must there-
fore have once touched the top of the stela and
rested upon it. The Niger Lapis has also been re-
dressed, perhaps twice. The tendency of archsBO-
logical opinion, with certain exceptions, is to attribute
the spoliation of these memorials to the tumults
which occurred between the Plebs and the Patricians
in the days of the Gracchi, when the adjoining

12 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Rostra Vetera were often broken down and had to be

expiated. Yet, if all that violence happened upon the

site of the tomb of Romulus, it is remarkable that

Horace should have thought, ninety years later only,

that the bones of Romulus were still lying on that spot

to be scattered maybe by the profane violence of some

barbarian invader. Evidently, neither the sacking of

the city by the Gauls, nor the wrecking of the Comitium

by the Plebs, had disturbed the tomb of Romulus, as far

as was known to the poet, who, during the Civil War,

wrote :

* Barbaras hea cineres insistet victor et Urbem

Eques sonante verberabit angnla,
Qnseqae carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini,

Nefas videre ! dissipabit insolens.'

— Epodon Liber, 16.

Yet, in Carmen, iii. 3, Horace adroitly utilises the
other legend, of Romulus having been translated to the
skies. It reminds us that the Egyptians used to show
the grave of their god, Osiris.

It would, however, have seemed an event of exceed-
ingly ill-omen to have profaned the Founder's Sepulchre.
But the most formidable difficulty of many does not lie
here. The successive strata, being regularly superposed,
and having been but little disturbed, show that they had
gradually swallowed up the various monuments after the
sculptured lions had been deliberately removed. Thus,
while the pedestals vanished beneath the soil, the lions
which were once upon them may have remained visible
for a considerable time. The sacrificial materials be-
long to an earlier date than their strewment here.
Hence, perhaps, the origin of the tradition, which
reached Varro ^ and Dionysius of Halicarnassus,^ as to
there having been two lions or one lion guarding

^ Duos leones erectos faisse constat. ^ Dionys. i. 87.

^

->Oi o ,

•' ' ' <* o -

1

THE FORUM 13

the tomb of Romulus. At some undeterminable date
the stela and the cone must have stood out well
above them. But as time went on the lions were
intentionally removed. Perhaps one remained longer
than his fellow. The pedestals were seen no more.
The rising tide of successive strata — the redressing, in
fact, of the entire Comitium {piano regolatore) as need
periodically arose and re-arose — now had only the cone
and stela to deal with. As these slowly seemed to
descend, the top of the stela (7 cm& higher than the
cone) became more liable to damage. No fragment
of it occurred in excavating the lower strata; so
that unless it was broken off at an earlier period and
carried away, we must conclude that it suffered muti-
lation, possibly at comparatively a late date, for want
of protection. Some reverent person repaired this
religious scandal.

The general impression, however, given by the ap-
pearances of the group is that of a coetaneous and
uninterrupted spoliation. Professor Comparetti thinks
the stela may originally have been of the height of a
man. It has in this case but a fourth of its height.
The blow which knocked off its top wrenched it askew
upon its then hidden grooved base. For so it appeared
when found. Had the base been free of the pressing
weight of soil around it, the whole stela would have
been then overturned. Had it been deliberately
shortened, in order to suit the levelling of the
Comitium at a later date, such violence as was used
upon it would have been unnecessary. Hence we may
accept that it suffered, with its adjoining relics, from
exposure during a tumult or tumults, rather than at
the hands of sacrilegious curators who re-paved the
Comitium in Caasar's time and before.

U RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

All the monuments of this group, as already men-
tioned, were found enveloped in the seventh or sacrificial
stratum.^ Whether this latter was due to sacrifices on a
large scale offered at the spot, or whether it was brought
from early ritual deposits hard by and spread there,
is not ascertainable ; but it must not escape note, if we
adopt the former hypothesis, that the figurines of bronze
and ivory were found, almost all of them, around the
stela, although without observing any special regularity
of deposition. The pottery and vases were none of
them whole, and the general character of the 'stipe'
was decidedly archaic.

The sixth stratum, i.e. that above the sacrificial,
composed chiefly of beaten-up morsels of tufo, formed
the bed for the Republican tufo pavement of the
Comitium, which reveals the ancient orientation. This
stratum consequently covered over the stela. It is pro-
bable that whoever placed the ritual deposit here also
placed the decorative Niger Lapis over the entire area
occupied by these various monuments ; that same solid
pavement which has since undergone lifting, redressing,
and re-orientation in later days.

The pavement was therefore originally of larger
dimensions than those it now presents ; how much
larger, it is not possible to say. Whoever laid it,
whether Cs&sar or Sulla, that person was doubtless
informed accurately of the area occupied by the tradi-
tional tomb of Romulus and its adjacent monuments. It
may be doubted, however, whether these monuments
(i.e. stela and cone) were 'covered, or intended to be
covered, by it. It may well have been intended
solely to cover the traditional tomb of Romulus, and
have thus been at first symmetrical and coincident

^ 40 cms. in thickness, resting on riverine sand and pebbles.

THE FORUM 15

with the lines binding that monument and its ac-
cessories. Its northern side measures the same length
as that of the combined pedestals. Yerrius Flaccus,
who taught Caius and Lucius Caesar in the house of
Augustus upon the Palatine, knew how the Niger
Lapis was regarded in his day ; and his epitomist,
Festus (a century or so later), has left us the passage
(177) now so famous, which leapt to the mind of the dis-
coverer, as I recollect, almost as soon as he had found
it. I seem to hear him pronouncing the words to me
on the spot as he did when the first squares of the
wonderful marble with crystal veins came to light:
' Niger Lapis in Comitio locum f unestum significat, ut
alii Bomuli morti destinatum^ sed non usu obvenisse ut
ibi sepeliretur/ &c. This accorded with the tradition,
of which Plutarch was aware, namely, that the death of
Romulus did not take place (as one ancient legend has
it) in the Caprean Marsh of the Campus Martins, but
that he was slain by the senators at the neighbouring
Yolcanal, or original 'rostral ' platform, i.e. on his throne.
As several fragments of the same marble (found
nowhere else in Rome) have since been met with
embedded in the walls and floor of the longitudinal
and transverse galleries certainly made by Julius
Caesar, travelling beneath the Forum, there is some
reason to attribute the placing of the Niger Lapis in
the Comitium to his account, although it would seem
more reasonable to the present writer to attribute to
Caesar the first re-orientation of the pavement, and thus
to account for the odd broken pieces of black marble
finding their way into his other work. La that case
the Niger Lapis might be referred to the time of Sulla,
approximately B.C. 80. Whether it replaced any earlier
black pavement, or was only then set down, in order to

16 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

give the spot its especially sombre character, is not
proven. No traces of such an early pavement have
come to light, and if the spot was regarded as ' funes-
tus ' in early days, that character was marked in some
other manner. The moulded pedestals for the missing
lions may be safely dated to the sixth century b.c.,
while the stela with its Boustrophedic ^ inscription,
may belong to a yet remoter period, albeit the writing
does not discover to us its date, seeing that we do not
know precisely down to which century archaic epi-
graphy of this character survived. The inscriber can-
not be congratulated on his skill. Some of the letters
are four inches in length, and some are only three.
He seems to have miscalculated like a child the space
demanded by his inscription, and consequently he was
compelled to finish it on one of the four bevelled
angles. There have probably (as was thought at the
time) been two different hands at work upon it. So
far as the meaning of the words can be now gathered,
they refer to: (1) Sacred ordinances and the Rex Sao-
rorum, or chief state-priest; (2) the sanctity of the
spot. The Rex Sacrorum (as observed) was wont to
sacrifice annually in the Comitium on February 24,
celebrating there a very obscure purificatory rite, in
company with the Salian priests of Mars called the
Regifugium.

These stratifications (i.e, sacrificial, and gravel 40
cms.) were found to be interrupted immediately east
(55 cms.) of the pedestals by a Republican sustaining
wall of small squared blocks of tuf o, and they did not
take up again beyond it ; while on the south-west side
of them occur foiur steps to a platform of tufo, which

1 A vertical inscription backwards and forwards, as an oz-
team ploughs a field.

Early Bepitblican (Nobth) Makgib of Forum,

BEAH NiGEB Lapis (1900)

(Stnoe covered up)

THE FORUM 17

are attributable to the early Rostrum,^ the same which
became decorated with the beaks of the Yolscian
ships taken at Antium in b.g. 338. Immediately
north of the Niger Lapis, a mediaeval well had been
sunk, which, besides a quantity of burnt hay, contained
marble transennce belonging to a church of the ninth or
tenth century and a number of glazed water-jars, some
dating as late as the fourteenth century.

At the time of the foregoing excavation the re-
mainder of the Comitium still lay beneath a lofty
bank reaching as far as the Church of S. Adriano,
and the tramway from the Suburra (Via Cavour)
passing over the north-west end of the site of the
Basilica Emilia, came round in front of that church.
Owing, however, to the contemporaneous purchasing of
certain houses belonging to the Fiore family by Mr.
Lionel Phillips, Guido Baccelli, the then Minister of
Public Instruction, saw his way to compel the tramway
company to alter their course, and pass it behind
instead of before this church, and thus to surrender
to archaeological exploration this invaluable site.^

No sooner was this work put in hand than Com-
mendatore Boni commenced the extension of his
exploration, and presently found himself (as was not
to be wondered at) cutting and clearing the gruesome
graveyard of S. Adriano, through which the above
mediaeval well and another had been sunk for drinking-
water. The human remains naturally lay at various

^ *Post rostrum sepulohrum Romuli' {SchU, HoraL), These
rostra were restored at least three times.

3 Comm. Boni wrote me in October 1899 : * I am now cutting off
the electric tram so as to ezcayate the Comitium, as yon hoped
would be done. The Domns Publica becomes more and more in-
teresting, revealing new rooms with very beautiful pavements. '

B

18 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

levels. The excavation proceeded first along the eastern
side of the area of the Comitium, gradually enveloping
the central portion, and finally reaching out as far as
security for the street (Via Bonella) above it permitted,
on the western side, where, however, one of the most
important of the remains of the Imperial monuments of
the Comitium was destined to be discovered, namely,
the pedestal dedicated to Mars and the Founders.

Meantime, running west and east, were followed out
two lines of augured pits, most of them of rectangular,
but some few of polygonal form ; the more marked of the
latter are seen immediately north of the Niger Lapis.
In all, of this series twenty-one remained, though
many of these are mutilated, owing to the aggressions
of later monuments, while some have been cut away
by the Cloaca.^ They rise from Republican strata,
having walls of tufo. They were full of earth, but
contained no ritual remains, having no doubt been
deliberately cleared of such in ancient times. Some
archsBologists have been reminded by them of the stone-

^ The exploration of the southernmost of these lines of augaral
pits was full of interest ; for as the Cloaca (till then called
Maxima) became exposed, the level at which it was carried
confirmed the explorer in his belief that it could not be what
it was supposed to be. It was found to have acted as a
diaphragma in the vicinity of the Niger Lapis, preventing the
outflow of rain-waters there ; and now, it was further seen
to have cut one of the augural pits in its construction.
On examining its walls, they were shown to be none too well
masonried with materials stolen from various Republican build-
ings. This drain may be attributed, therefore, not to Tarquinius,
but to Agrippa. The hydrostatic problem presented by the
Comitium afforded the excavator the satisfaction of lowering
the filtration waters which invaded the tomb of Romulus, and
equilibriating them by means of an automatic syphon with the
Cloaca.

The Curia (phom Basilica Julia)

^

' •

THE FORUM 19

fencings which protected the sacred trees; others, of the
Doliola, or places for votive gifts to the gods of the
under-world. A fresh line of similar pits (fosse) found
in the road between the Forum and the Basilica Julia,
orientated in Caesar's manner, confirms Commendatore
Boni in his attribution of them all as augural pits.
Yet another series has been found since then, in front
of the Imperial rostra, and another running beneath
the Temple of Julius, and marking the eastern boundary
of the Forum.

In a line from the right or south-eastern side of the
Church of S. Adriano (Curia), the boundary of the
Comitium.was found to be defined by a line of marble
pedestals, some still in site, bearing laudatory and super-
lative inscriptions to the later Emperors and Prefects.
Immediately east of these inins the selce-paven
Argiletum, a street dividing the Curia and Comitium
from the Basilica i^milia. On the line of these
pedestals (which at that time became covered with
the unearthed skulls and bones of the cemetery) ap-
peared a conglomerated mass of stone and marble
containing many other late inscriptions; the whole
apparently having served as the base for an early

: campanile to the Church. The latter was dedicated
first as a Christian shrine in a.d. 630, or one hundred

I and fifty-eight years after the extinction of the western
Empire. In the wall of the church itself now become

' exposed several lociUi or graves containing the remains
of early patrons and prelates of S. Adriano ; some of
these being individually buried, the graves of others in-
vaded by masses of odd and end bones. As the fa9ade
wall became cleared some of the inionaco or stucco (once
entirely veneered with white marble) was found still

, adhering to the surface. West of the door, a fragment

20 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

of the Imperial dado-moulding and veneer actually re-
mains, having escaped the destruction wrought, not by
the Yandals, but by the Christian sextons of the seventh
and eighth centuries. The former positions of the
door of the church can be easily traced in the clumsy
filling-in, travelling up to the present position, and
sometimes comically leaving the bases of its former
jambs behind it. The noble original doors of bronze
must have worked upward in this manner with the
rubbish levels from say a.d. 630 until 1654, when
Alexander YII. transferred them to the western
entrance of the Basilica of S. Giovanni Laterano,
where they remain.

In the lowest portion of this filling-in (where now,
reclosed up, appears a rough-cut arched recess) the
explorer pierced the wall, which was, of course, ill
made up of broken lumps of porphyry columns and
other architectonic remains, and presently came
straight on to the latest edition of the senatorial
pavement of the Curia. This proved to be a patchwork
of fine marbles, many having fragments of inscriptions,
and promising a valuable mine to future epigraphists
— albeit most of those legible in the limited space
then cleared belong to the fifth century.

The monks of S. Adriano, however, became both
alarmed and not a little indignant at these proceed-
ings. The excavation of the Basilica iEmilia had by
this seriously been commenced, and their convent
overlooking that site had become noisy, dusty, and
almost unsafe. Now their very church seemed to be
undermined. As they naturally complained to the
Cardinal-Yicar, further explorations of the Curia had
to be deferred, and the aperture was duly closed. One
of the monks plainly told the writer that he had heard

THE FORUM 21

him lecture on the Basilica iEmilia, on the occasion
which resulted in the excavation thereof, and he knew
not only that he was an out-and-out Pagan, but that
he made others so, and ' spread the poison everywhere
by means of a vain enthusiasm/ 'Tou'U want S.
Lorenzo in Miranda next, or S. Maria Liberatrice.'

Below this opening was cleared the projecting tufo
platform which had carried the original marble stairs
of the Curia. The steps themselves are traceable on
the eastern extremity near a Republican well. To the
right of the door stood a marble sarcophagus, with
baccdlcUuraf or S-grooved ornamentation, while two
terra-cotta ones, similar to those found later at S.
Maria Antiqua, stood in front of the door. In the well,
which is 37 feet deep, were found fragments of neatly-
moulded stucco with polychrome decorations, attribut-
able, possibly, to the Augustan Curia. Beneath this plat-
form the aforesaid sextons of the church had formed an
ossuary chamber. Under this lay a Republican tank,
containing pottery, cups, and jars, and some bivalves.

The space, or central area of the Comitium, lying
between these steps and the Kiger Lapis, was presently
cleared down to the travertine pavement now visible.
In this was found set a shallow marble basin, measur-
ing 15 feet in diameter, having in midst of it the
rectangular setting-lines for the support of the upper
basin or cup of the fountain. Professor Huelsen thinks
a cantharus may have adorned it rather than a foun-
tain ; and he recalled the fact that Pirro Ligorio ^ had

^ This sixteenth-centnry Neapolitan architect and antiquary
sometimes tells the truth ; at others amuses himself with forging
inscriptions or inventing designs upon slight suggestions. He
is therefore a perilous authority. His abilities are displayed
at the Villa d'Este.

22 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

mentioned the finding of a great porphyry vase here.
The fountain basin (9 cms. thick) is^ however, of late
Imperial make, while the pavement around it is post-
Imperial, the former having been brought probably from
elsewhere, or re-established, on a later pavement. Below
this basin the excavation descended 74 cms., to find the
neatly-cut travertine pavement of the Republican (pre-
CaBsarean) Comitium observing duly the old orientation.
The intervening space being occupied (ascending) by
50 cms. stratum of marble and tufo concrete; 14 cms.
marble-fiag ; 10 cms. terra-cotta (cocchia pSsta) concrete.
The whole reposes on a bed of stony tufo, from which,
at a distance of twenty-two feet from the fa9ade of the
Curia, rose six tufo stairs, once cased with white marble.
On the western side of the Comitium was now un-
earthed a second-century marble pedestal^ bearing upon
its northern face the dedicatory names of the Consuls
of A.D. 154: Titus ^Elius Aurelius Commodus, and
Titus Sextius Lateranus ; on its western face the names
of forty-three members of the Guild of Carpenters
(Collegium Fabnim), This had originally, therefore,
borne some honorary statue or trophy, and had been
dedicated on the Kalends of August in that year, in the
reign of Marcus Aurelius, in the name of the Consuls.
One line of it was erased imperfectly : * Magistri
Quinq(uennales) Coll(egi) fabr(um).' The other two
faces of the pedestal, however, at once explained its
appropriation and presence here ; albeit it is not exactly
in site, and appears to have suffered an attempted
removal, having been found slightly tilted and with soil
remaining between it and the pavement. On its eastern
face a fourth-century inscription appeared, bearing date
and the name of FurioB Octaviantui (Curator ^dium
Sacrarum), The date was in itself interesting, being

THE FORUM 23

the XI. Calends of May (April 21), otherwise the popu-
lar festival of the birth of the City (Natalis Urbis);
and late as the inscription appeared to be, it was par-
ticularly striking as being associated with Romulus
and found in the immediate vicinity of the Niger
Lapis. A hundred-fold, therefore, was interest in-
creased when on the fourth^ or southern, face being
exposed and washed, there appeared the words: Marti

INVIGTO PATRI ET ETEBN^ UBBIS SUiE CONDITOBIBUS

DoMiNUS NosTEB (Imp. Maxentius — purposely, but
ineffectually, erased) — Pi(us) f(slix) invictus Aug-

(UBTUS).

On the upper surface occur three holes for the
pegs which have supported and fastened to the
pedestal the base of some piece of sculpture in marble
or in bronze, sacred to Mars and Rome ; in all pro-
bability the Wolf and Twins. -^ Moreover, it was dedi-
cated in the Comitium by the ill-fated and patriotic
emperor, who named his own son Romulus, and, in
honour of him dead, built the Heroon Romuli (now
SS. Cosma and Damiano), and who, similarly, in honour
of Rome, restored the twin temples on the Yelia, Yenus,
and Roma, and erected the last of Pagan basilicas in
the colossal style. No wonder, then, that Maxentius
entitles himself on his coins ' Conservator urbis sucb*
We stood for two hours rivetted to the spot, with eyes
fixed upon the letters of Maxentius's name, peering
unmistakably through the chisel-marks of Constan-
tine's destroying hand, thinking of the mighty works
of the former, and the paltry frauds and petty plun-
derings of his Christian successor.

^ Pliny writes that the Wolf was miracnlonsly transferred to
the Comitium: 'Miracolo ex aare jozta dioato tanqoam in
Comiiiam sponte transisset.'

24 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

ABOH OF 8EVEBUS

While the foregoing exploration of the Comitium
was proceeding, the mediaeval levels around the Arch
of Septimius Sevems were removed, both behind and
before it. The paven road through the central arch
of course belonged to the latest of them, having been
placed there in order to accommodate the absurd and
sarcastic triumphal procession of Charles Y.

Several small but valuable fragments belonging to
the elaborate sculptures of that monument were found,
which are now replaced in their original positions.
Immediately west of the third pier (S.) of the Arch, a
large oval well was found; at the bottom of which,
however^ nothing more valuable was discovered than
masses of chickens' bones. Almost adjoining this, the
spade at the same time uncovered the Ara Volcani, or

VOLOANAL

(June 27, 1899), otherwise the altar of the god of Fire,
and perhaps of summer warmth, whose feast-day was
August 23, and whose Flamen on May 1 used to sacrifice
to Maia.

The ruined Temple of Yulcan at Ostia bears witness
to the nervous attention paid to this divinity in a
place once crowded with the inflammable stores for the
city supplies. Here, too, near the Forum, his sacred
Area is situate immediately adjacent to that of the
Sowing god, Saturn (Sfieturnus) and that (formerly) of
Ops Consiva. A portion of it was appropriated
by Augustus for the rebuilding on a sumptuous scale
of the neighbouring Temple of Concordia; but the
Emperor did not forget to recompense Yulcan by

THE FORUM 25

sumptuously rehabilitating his altar, and adorning
the remaining Area with splendid works of art.

From the earliest traditions of the Forum we derive
the fact that there was a slightly elevated spot, situated
west of the Comitium, and adjoining the area of Con-
cordia, which was sacred to Yulcan, and called * Area
Vulcani.' Dionysius (lib. 2, c. 50), speaking of Romulus
and Tatius transacting State-affairs in the Temple of
Yulcan, describes it as * standing a little above the level
of the Forum.' Here Appius, the Decemvir, after the
death of Virginia, harangued the people. The god of
Fire was, therefore, accorded for his worship a pro-
minent and central locality adjoining the ancient
Forum; and seeing how severely Rome suffered at
all periods from violent conflagrations, it is remark-
able that his cult should have been allowed to grow out
of date to such a degree that the Emperor Macrinus
ventured to suppress the Yolcanalia altogether in a.d.
217. By a strange coincidence, however, on the very
day in that year, when this Festival became due, the
Coliseum was struck by lightning in several places,
an event which led to its immediate re-establishment
under Alexander Severus. - For Macrinus did not survive
his impiety long. As in the ' Sepolcretum,' or ancient
cemetery of the primitive inhabitants of these hills, are
now seen fossette, or little bowl-shaped pits around the
tombs, which were once filled with bowls containing
fruit and cereals showing the dead to be the guests of
the god in the lower world, so numbers of similar
fossette came to light cut in this rock of Yulcan, in
which offerings to this divinity had been placed. No
traces of these offerings were, however, discovered. The
sacrifices to Yulcan, in the private houses (probably as
a charm, or sympathetic magic, as it is called), against

26 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

outbreaks of fire, consisted of small fish which were
sold by fisher-folk at this area for the special purpose of
throwing into the flames at home. Mr. Warde-Fowler
and Wissowa (to both of whom Archaeology is deeply
indebted for their conscientious researches into the
interesting subject of Roman festivals) are unable
to fully explain thi& In Rome the Gods delighted in
Trees, and in early days most of their temples possessed
sacred groves. This primitive tree-worship of the divinity
in many instances survived and lingered out alongside
his elaborated ritual of later periods ; and after the tree
had ceased to be regarded as the home or resort of the
god, it still continued to be venerated as a glorious
symbol of fecundity and an annual miracle. Here,
at the Area of Yulcan^ flourished, even down to Impeiial
days, a large cypress and a lotus-tree (Plin. H. N. xvi.
235). It perhaps was not entirely coincidence that
the cypress-^ was the Persian symbol of pure light;
while the lotus-tree, especially sacred to Yesta, was
regarded as the symbol of pure fire. As at the com-
mencement of every sacrifice, a tuft of the animal's
hair was thrown on the fire ; so on her entrance to the
service of Yesta, the hair of each vestal was suspended
to the sacred lotus * capillata ' in the atrium.

The Altar, facing the Forum, stood as the preface to the
Area which it adorned, and it now consists of an oblong
rectangular mass of rock much mutilated by deliberate
damage in early days. Hence it was much loftier before
that spoliation. It measures 2 m. 90 cms. in breadth
(E.-W.), and 4 m. 95 cms. in length (N.-S.). But when
curtailed and reframed, the cube was considerably
reduced. The eastern face of it was covered with

^ Thongh in Rome, as a rule, its dark compact foliage became
associated with death and the ander world.

1

jre
of

ler
)ly
he
»le
in
)d

'7
e

9

p Vestal Tbmbnob

Tub Door and Lavsel of Regia
(Looking South- West)

THE FORUM 27

2 cms. of intonaco made of tufo and marble concrete,
appropriately painted bright vermilion ; and the altar
at its north-east angle was mended with a block of tufo
before this intonaco was put on. The block or flag
close by, opposite the second pier of the Arch of Severus,
which shows the same colour, Professor Lanciani con-
siders is a part of this same intonaco. Unfortunately
this latter intonaco is not composed with marble. So,
though it no doubt belonged to some edition of the altax,
it did not, I think, belong to this particular one.
(C/. Lanciani Bull, Oomm., 1902, p. 125). The early
morning of June, when this was being first un-
covered, was a veritable blaze of perfect sunshine, as
if the Divinities presiding over light and flame were
expressing their utmost favour; and on the Palatine
the poppies blazed, while the nightingales gave a
chorua To the rear of the Yolcanal occurs a network
of early tufo drains, having important relation to the
yet unexplored Forum Jnlinm.

Meantime, other excavations were being carried out,
both at the Begia and at the iEdes Vesta, while the
houses of Michele and Antonio Fiore on the high bank
next the Temple of Antoninus Faustina were being
rapidly demolished. Between the Temenos, or sacred
enclosure belonging to Yesta, and the Begia, or Pon-
tifical Chapter-house, was also opened out the little
street ^ or lane on which was found a Republican well of
the pentagonal type,^ having ' pedarole,' or footholee, for
descent. Out of this well came, besides nearly 300
vases and terra-cotta weights, a curvilinear fragment
of its former mouth, which enabled the latter to be
reconstructed in site ; also several skeletons of weasels
{mustela vulgaris)y the domestic scavenger in Rome

» VicM. « Dia. O'Tl.

28 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

before the importation of cats ; and a charming little
terra-cotta figurine (35 cms. in height) of Yenus,
footless and headless, with remains of her garment (laid
aside) coloured a bright vermilion. These will all be
placed in the new museum behind S. Francesca Romana.
The wall of the Temenos of Yesta was seen to be of a
much nobler type of construction than that of the
Regia opposite, as rebuilt by Calvinus, B.C. 36. The
former is made of large, well-laid blocks of Peperino
(in English measures, 1 ft. 10 in. deep, and in length
varying from 2 ft. 1 in. to 3 ft. 10 in. and 4 ft. 5 in.),
showing the clinching-holes by which they were gripped,
The wall of the Regia, on the other hand, is built
of small squared blocks of tufo, 2 ft long and 1 ft.
5 in. deep. This probably took the place of a prede<
cesser made in a better style, close-laid and smooth-
surfaced.

BEGIA

The Begia, preserving but a portion of its pre-
CsBsarean area, has nevertheless kept the ancient orien-
tation. It forms an obtuse-angled edifice, entered on
its eastern or shortest side, where are remains of its
steps of access and a marble-framed door. The whole
building widens out westward toward the Temple of
Julius CflBsar, part of which latter was erected on a
portion of ground previously belonging to it,
and part upon the eastern boundary-street of the
Forum. In plan the Begia is now, at any rate,
trapezoidal. Much of the western side is roughly
constructed of blocks of travertine. Attached to
this would seem to have stood the Office of the
Kalatores Fontificum et Flaminum, who were freedmen

THE FORUM 29

attached to the Sacred College. A marble block
inscribed with their name was found reversed here,
the remainder of which had been discovered in 1546
by the Farnese plunderers of the Forum. The whole
inscription runs, .' In honorem domus Augustse
Kalatores pontificum et Flaminum.' The northern
face of the Regia is bounded by travertine steps
rising from the Sacra Via opposite the Temple of
Faustina. These steps were now cleared. They are,
however, belonging to post-Imperial days, when the
Regia was no longer the office of a Sacred College. The
northern wall of the Regia was found a little behind
them. The whole building rose upon tufo foundations.
The debased entrance-door, if not post-Imperial, is at
any rate of the late empire, and perhaps has but one
merit, that it^ in all likelihood, occupies the site of an
earlier one.

It is manifest that here, within the immediate circle
of buildings comprising the Regia, the Atrium of
Yesta, and the shrine of that goddess, we are standing
full in the religious centre of ancient Rome. To the
walls of the former were wont to be affixed the Fasti
Triumphales and Consulares, many fragments of which
were found here in dr. 1545. This characteristic is
indicative of the nature of the Sacred Chapter-House.
For the Fontifices were theologians and jurists, of
supreme authority as referees : ' Judex atque arbiter
habetur rerum divinarum, humanarumque ' (Festus, 29).
Hence from this spot we may say that jurisprudence
grew and flourished, like the sacred Bay-tree. The
Pontiffs knew all religious precedents, but their Head
was not Chief -Priest. Even the Pontifex Maximus
ranked beneath the Rex Sacrorum, who virtually was
the High -priest in Rome and chief expounder of

30 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

sacred law {fas). Neither were the Fontifices
fully magistrates. They were accorded no right of
addressing the people, or of inflicting punishment
themselves, except in the case of the Yestals and
Flamens, who were regarded as the ritual family of
the State,^ and the Fontifex Maximus as their pater-
familias. Religious misdemeanours were adjudged
by him and the College, but the penalties were
inflicted by the Consul, except, again, in the case
of the Vestals or Flamens. The offence of a Vestal,
such as neglect of duty, was punished by the Fontifex
without consulting the College. If, however, it was
an offence against chastity, the whole College assembled,
and the Fontifex Maximus decided the verdict. For the
Vestals were elected by the College. The magisterial
power, even in such a case, was limited to dealing with
the delinquent. Her paramour was scourged to death
on the Comitium by the Frsetor Urbanus.^ But as far
as priests were concerned in Rome, the pontiffs gave
their advice in all cases of difficulty. The office of
Fontifex Maximus did not exclude its holder from other
civil and religious offices. He might even at the same
moment be Consul, Augur, and Decemvir Sacrorum.
His actual residence throughout the later days of
the Republic was the Domus Publica, Caesar's dwel-
ling at the time of his death, but last occupied, until
his decease b.c. 12, by ^milius Lepidus. Augustus,
then living on the Falatine, gave up the historic palace

1 In the days of the kings the College coDsisted of five ponti-
fices, including the king. After the expnlsion it remained
composed of four only. After B.C. 300 it was raised to eight.
In B.C. 57 there were fifteen. Ciesar added one more.

3 Cf. the case of Lucius Gantilius and Feronia, who was
beaten in the Comitium * ut inter verbera expiraret ' (Liv,
lib., 22, 57).

THE FORUM 31

and site to the Vestals, so as to extend their abode
into more magnificent dimensions. The remains of the
latter, as restored by Julia, Empress of Severus, now
occupy the site, but disclose important relics of the
other building.

The chief documents of state import kept at the
Begia were : —

1. The Libri Pontificum, or list of the College and
its former members.

2. The Acta, or professional transactions of the
College.

3. Formulas of all kinds of prayer, vows, sacrifices,
and dedications.

4. Prescriptions of ritual.

5. Decretals and commentariea

6. State Calendars (fasts, &c.).

7. Annales. Events of each year for public reference.

8. Leges Regise. Canon laws relating to marriage^
wills, death-duties, &c.

All priests wore a long white robe, purple-bordered,
and called Pretexta.

The Begia, however, contained things still more
important in the shape of certain small shrines. These
were sacred respectively to Mars, Ops Consiva, and
Janua After the debris was cleared within the eastern
doorway, opposite which two bay laurels now once
more flourish, the excavator stood on a platform of
flags (0*20 m.) of tufo-gidllOy interrupted by a slightly
conical circular platform of gray tufo (btgio), having
a diameter of 2*53 m. This important base of a
shrine in all probability belongs to the Sacrarimn of
Mars, in which the ' Hastse Martis,' or two symbolical
spears of Mars, were suspended, whose vibrations were
in Republican days regarded with profound anxiety;

32 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

in fact, as Comm. Boni remarked at the time, they
constituted a sort of primitive seismograph for the
registration of telluric disturbances.^ Here also were
kept the Ancilia, or shields of Mars, which were taken
forth by the Salii, or before-mentioned dancing priests
of Mars, and borne by them in their New Year's Day
procession through Rome (March 1). The two laurels
originally grew in front of this * Sacrarium Martis,'
being sacred to that divinity. Hence their presence
at the Regia. It is expressly related by the historians
that when the Regia was burned in B.C. 148 the laurels
alone escaped. A bronze As, or Republican coin, bear-
ing the effigies of Janus, and a spindle-whorl, were found
beside it.

North a little of this was found a Republican well
similar to that in the lane.^ It contained a few
knuckle-bones (astragcUt) and the skeleton of a weasel.
Further in the same direction was uncovered another
circular podium occupying a small square platform
(0*89 m.). This is obviously of the same nature as the
former and larger sacrarium, and may have belonged to
Janus. Eastward close to this came the important dis-
covery of the Tholes. This was discovered before the
Sacrarium Martis, which latter, curiously enough, was un-
earthed on the day of a violent earthquake in August
1899, whereas the Tholos began being explored on June
13 of that year. (From the neck, measuring 1*20 m., it
expanded as the spade and pail went down, until it
attained and kept a width of 3 '02 m. The total depth

1 Cf, Aulas GeU, 4, 6, 2. *Quod. C. JuUua Lucu fiUus, Ponti-
fez nuntiavit, in Sacrario Requb bastas Martias movisse, de ea
re ita censuerant.' Prayers were offered likewise to Vesta and
Bona Dea to keep off earthquakes. Cf. Lydus. de MenSj 4, 52.

3 The deepest in the Forum, 14 metres^

South Wall op Regia (Republican)

E THOLOS IB TUB RBGIA

THE FORUM 33

was 4*36 m.). This second store, or penus^ was well
preserved, and although full of water and mud,
had been carefully lined on its exterior, like that
other ancient tholos by the House of Livia on the
Palatine, with a thick layer of chocolate clay from the
quarries of lava near Cecilia Metella on the Via Appia,
measuring 0*50 m. The interior was found to be
lined with four distinct coats of fine white cement.
The pit, therefore, was a sacred store, carefully and
constantly protected against percolations from without.
The bottom was reached at 17 feet and found to be
slightly concave, and lined with opus stgnirmm, with
a moulding running around its circumference. Half-
way down in it began to be encountered pieces of
medisBval pots and bowls and the bones of farmyard
animals. At a lower depth things became more in-
teresting. In one afternoon twenty-six bone styli, or
pens, of various sizes were brought up in the pail.
These afterwards increased to seventy-eight With
them was also found a blackened oaken writing-tablet,
which bore evidences of having been much used. Of
course the wax had entirely vanished, but the sharp
points of ancient pens had penetrated occasionally and
left clear though undecipherable marks. It measured
0*102 by 0*045 m. One could not but attribute the
presence of these numerous pens fallen into this sacred
graiuHstore to the repeated accidental slippings from
the hand, or from behind the ear perhaps, of the
stewards or accountants of the pontifical college. At
the very bottom a travertine fragment of a well-mouth
was found, which surprised us by revealing in Repub-
lican letters the word ' Rbgia,' This compact variety
of travertine comes not from Bagni, but Sgurgola.
In this Tholos was recognised the saeraritim of Ops

34 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

ConsiTa, whose harvest-festival took place August 25.
<Ops Consiva, quoius in Regia Sacrarium, quod ideo
actum ut eo prseter Yirgines Yestales et sacerdotem
publicum introeat nemo ' (Yarro, L. L., 6, 20). Here,
therefore, was a State-granary; apparently somewhat
of a rival to the Penus Yestse ; though, as the above
words show, the Yestals and the Rex Sacrorum alone
could enter it, representing the sacred kingly family.
Ops was represented in sculpture by a matron holding
a loaf in her left hand, as if ready to succour the
needy. People paid homage to her in a sitting
posture.

The Tholos probably owned a little court to itself,
strictly under lock and key. The styli were for the
most part beautifully turned, and the users had in
many instances been in the habit of gnawing the
rounded knob used for erasing errors in the wax.
Comm. Boni reminded me at the time, of the trade,
to which the captive son of Perseus, King of Macedon,
was brought up in Rome, of making styli. Their
varied shapes almost suggest the variety of characters
in their owners. Some are short and stubby, others
are long and graceful ; some have evidently been
favourites with their owners, others have had but
little usage, or were soon lost in this granary.

One excavation now took place also around the entire
circuit, or peribolus, of the Yestal Shrine, which proved
to be deep-set in a bed of golden sand ; while another
began on the Sacra Yia by SS. Cosma and Damiano,
although certain archsBologists, asseverating that the
surface of the Sacra Yia at that point and onwards was,
beyond question^ a noble avenue made by Maxentiua,
uttered strong, but fortunately ineffectual, protests.

• •• <«>

••■WriHIN CELLA STEKCORARIA op ^DE8 Vest^

THE FORUM 36

VESTA

The podium of the j3Edes Vest© has survived many
partial destructions since the original fire-hut, or Focus
Fublicus, had perished in the Gaulish invasion, b.o. 390.
It is by no means a shapeless mass of tufo; but it
descends smoothly and evenly all round into its bed
of sand, so that the true diameter can be very pre-
cisely determined. It is built of tufo lionato, with the
grey lime mortar characteristic of pre-Imperial con-
structions. The diameter is roughly fifty feet English
(or 15'05 m.) and it sinks seven feet deep (or 2*17 m.).
It is interrupted in the centre by a trapezoidal pit,
orientated in the ancient manner. Around and above
this rose the cireolar platform upon which the many-
times-restored little building arose, with its two concen-
tric rings of fluted columns. As the pit, or favissa, bore
no cement linings or marble, and contained no ashes,
its meaning is by no means clear; although it made
one think of the ash-pit from which were taken the
ritual ashes by the Vestals each year (June 15)
('quando stercus delatum fas') and carried to the
Porta Stercoraria in the Servian wall on the Capitol,
there to be distributed to the air over the Campus
Martins as a ritual charm, or benediction,^ for the
coming harvests. All the burnt fuel and ashes of
the victims was wont to be then removed from the
shrine, and the day was observed as a solemn feast.
The exploration round the peribolus, however, soon
showed that if the ashes had been removed from
the central pit, plenty of them remained elsewhere.
There was, in fact, a ring of ashes, often imperfectly

1 Ad tellurem alendam.

36 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

combusted, both of wood (oak and cypress) and bones
of many sacrificial animals. But their presence re-
called to mind that they might belong rather to some
pontifical ritual taking place here rather than to the
Yestals and their own especial sacrifices. For the Shrine
of Vesta, in a certain sense, was virtually the chief
Sacrarium of the Regia. Upon subjecting the material
to analysis, it became evident that the bones repre-
sented pigs, dogs, and lambs, but that most of these
had belonged to animals in the milking stage. Among
them also occurred fragments of small skyphoi, oinochoe,
paterae,^ and ritual vessels, of black bucchero and Cam-
panian ware, together with u£2s rude^ or lumps of metal
exchange weighing 114, 75, 44, 24, 15 grams.

The nucleus so shattered and ruined above this deep
foundation bears evidences of the Flavian restoration
in opas quadratum, or squared stone of tufo lionato,
finely-fitting, and presenting a carefully-combed surface.
The restorations of Lucilla, cir. a.d. 185, are possibly
represented by the tufo concrete^ while the latest^ those
of Julia Domna, show tufo giallo.

Since those days there have been collected from
various excavations in the Forum and Palatine a
great number of fragments belonging to the shrine
and the Domus, most of them coming from the site
hard-by, formerly occupied by the Church of S. Maria
Liberatrice. In consequence, corrector notions of
the architecture of these buildings can be obtained
than was possible heretofore. The inter-columnia-
tions have thus been determined, as well as the
mouldings and decorations of the external frieze; the
manner of the openings or windows, by which the

^ ''Calices fictiles, qaibus Fontifices viiginesque Vestales
atebantor/'— Acron. ad Hor., Od. 1, 31, 11.

THE FORUM 37

smoke of the sacred fire (ignis perpetuus) was let out ;
and the door by which the building was entered, at
least in the edifice as reconstructed in the reign of
Severus (a.d. 193-211). The marble is from Luna
(Carrara). A circular graceful shrine such as this was,
stilted up on a lofty platform, safe from Tiber floods
and their pollutions, adorned with two concentric circles
of columns carrying a marble cupola, was but remotely
reminiscent of the primitive Oapanna, or fire-hut, in
which the cult had begun at Alba or Lanuvium ; or
even of that later one on this site — whose priestesses
Numa had charged to guard the fire and the water, and
to hold daily prayers for the safety and welfare of the
people : * pro omnibus efficacia vota suscipere.' During
times of crises, or after prodigies, such as plague, earth-
quake, they were bound to offer especial prayers, not
merely to Yesta, but to Apollo, the healer, to JSscula-
pius, his son, and to Diana Lucifera (light-bearer).

The excavator, being enabled later on to explore the
ground beneath the Church of S. Maria, soon cleared out
several chambers found west of the Atrium Vestae, pos-
sessing the utmost importance, as illustrating the ritual
observances of the sisterhood. After passing between
one or two, perhaps watching, chambers, served by
hypocausts, we reach one having a double-furnace on
our right. Each aperture measures 90 cms. ; both
ovens are tied together beneath a raised floor of tegulce
bipedcUeSf doubled, and having mortar between them.
On the level with the crown of each oven, and dividing
these, occurs a construction closely resembling a Tomba
Cineraria. It is made up of three large tiles (5
inches thick apiece), set triangle-wise. This could be
used precisely for careful incineration. Ashes were
inside it when opened, and in front on the floor lies a

38 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

thick layer of the ashes deposited there by the latest of
the Yestals (a.d. 392-394). Likewise in these chambers,
and in that adjoining them southward, were found
abundant remains of vases and archaic pottery, which,
it is known, it was de rigueur for the priestesses of
Yesta and of certain other divinities to use.

In yet another chamber with an apsidal west wall (at
the south-west angle) were discovered in site, embedded
naturally in a floor of white mosaic, a dish and two
amphorse. It stands back to back with the sacred
Fons Jutum». It measures 11*20 m. E.-W. x 6 m.
S. -N. ; apse, 4*50 m. Opening from this chamber
(S.) occur three smaller one& This chapel-resembling
room with a sanctuary, and having a bad post-Imperial
pavement in the body of it, has been called, with
sufficient warrant of probability, the Penus Vesta,
namely, that most sacred store-chapel, wherein were
kept the Palladium (or olive-wood figurine of Pallas)
and the other sacra fcUalia^ and upon which the safety
of Rome was held to depend — pledges of Empire.^ In
it were uttered those prayers, regarded, we are told, by
some people as so effectual {Precatio Vestalium) that by
them fugitive slaves could be arrested in their flight
(Plin., H. N., xxviiL 12, 13) ; and therein, during the
Vestalia in June, matrons, with bared feet and hair
loose, might come to demand the goddess's blessing for
their households.

Beyond this, to the left, is reached a winding stair-
case, which was a principal conductor to the upper
storey of the Virginea Domus in its palatial days. It
is evident that the ritual chambers of the House are

^ Whatever these were, and their nature is open to question,
it is probable that they all perished excepting the Palladiam in
the fire of Nero.

Locua iNTiMua (Vest*)

Tank, ok Vasca, i

r ^

:V

• •

Nl'

THE FORUM

39

(perhaps all of them) at the western end, in a line
with the Shrine itself.

We now reach a long corridor in the important and
beautifuUy-paven rooms opening (S.) out of it^ some even
having remains of delicate frescoes of the first century.
Altogether the two storeys of the House contained over
one hundred rooms. Beside a drain of Neronian date,
in the third room from the stairs, during one wet
November afternoon were found 397 gold coina I
was up in the Forum Office with Commendatore Boni,
when the foreman of the works came in, dripping and
breathless, to say that gold was being found. We went
down together. Only that very morning we had re-
marked upon the unusual scarcity of coins hitherto
found during the excavations. Upon reaching the spot
the man beside the drain was throwing out spadefuls
of mud, and the fast-falling rain here and there was
revealing the coins lying in it. Transferred to pails
of water, the following was the result of this memor*
able find. It is noteworthy that it took place within
fifteen yards of the discovery of Anglo-Saxon coins
in 1883 :—

Bnfemia, Empress of Anthemias (very rare)

Anthemios (467-472) .

Libius Sevems (461-465)

Leo I. (457-474) .

Marcianas (460-457)

Valentinianns III. (425-465)

Constantius II. (337-361) .

10

345

2

24
8
7
1

The date of the beautifully fresh coins of Anthemius
(which included the greater portion of the money)
pointed to the conclusion that they had been hidden
by their possessor, for some cogent reason, at the moment
when Rome was, for the third time, about to be sacked

40 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

in that century, namely, by Ricimer, the Bon-in-law of
Anthem ius. This event, in fact, took place on July
11, 472. Professor Gatti thinks the money was pro-
bably hidden by some official of the Court, who in-
habited the former House of the Vestals; for it was
now eighty [years since their suppression upon the
defeat of Eugenius by Theodosius.

Beyond this point rooms were found containing opus
sectUe pavements of giallo and pavonazzetto marble ;
while in the corridor itself other fragments of geome-
trically-designed pavement, also of coloured marbles,
appeared.

In the great Cortile itself, in addition to one small
vasca or tank at the eastern end, opened and in use
since 1883, there have since been found two others,
both situated west of the centre, and divided from one
another at a distance of 1*60 m., and once lined with
Luna marble. The largest and more ancient of these
has a small i^irway at each end to enter it by.
This one has been cut into and spoiled by a late
fourth-century octagonal structure. The foundations
of this ^dicola rest four feet below its pavement upon
golden arenose clay. The segmentary walls were only
35 cms. thick, and they radiated from a circular centre,
having a diameter of 4 metres. The wall carried on
this central circle had a thickness of 0*45, and the
outer wall, which alone followed an octagonal design,
showed the same measurement. It is clear, therefore,
that the building could not have been lofty. In a seg-
ment south of the centre is seen a curved foundation,
proving that the j£dicola carried a small apsis, or deep
niche, perhaps, for a statue. The real intention of
this poor and late structure is not clear. The explora-
tion of the longer tank, or vasca^ and the ground

THE FORUM 41

adjacent to it on the north side, besides disclosing
important evidence of the Domus Vestse destroyed in
the fire of Commodus (a.I). 192), and the Augustan one
destroyed in that of Nero, pelded evidences of the
dishes partaken by the Yestals : oysters of two kinds,
wild-boars' teeth and bones, together with lumache, or
snails, fish-bones of Oephalus and Lupo. Date-stones
occurred in plenty. Among the many rich marbles of
the Flavian reconstruction found beneath occurred
Breccia d'Egitto^ and (perhaps for the first time within
the City), Breccia Quintiliola in thick pieces with one
smoothed surface. With regard to this rare Breccia
the specimens are exceedingly rich in colours — red,
gold, and blue, as well as black, pebbles occurring in
them. Nevertheless, being in the main a dark marble,
and quite unfitted for carved work, one does not find
any known piece of it having traces of distinct mould-
ing. For what purpose, then, could it have been used ?
One specimen, a large one, has two cut surfaces
at right angles, and it is three inches thick. It
may, therefore, have formed a slab, or perhaps part of a
table. The westernmost and smaller of these Impluvia
corresponds with the quadrangular one at the eastern
end of the court, opposite the large Hall, or Tablinum.
Around the Atrium, the latest fourth-century mosaic
pavement is of black basalt (selce iesserm). Beneath it
lies an older one of neat ojpus gpicatum (wheatear),
Remains also of a house of a post-Yestal period, with
hypocaust and bathrooms, occur on the northern flank
of the Atrium. The original colonnade had apparently
ceased to exist, and the site became occupied by a
brick wall, having openings or windows in it. Centre
to centre the inter - columniations had measured
3-70 m.

42 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

At first it is difficult to picture this vast palace,
once so splendid with this colonnaded peristylium, and
dazzling with marble walls and white pavements^ and
containing ove^ five-score rooms, furnished sumptuously
with precious carpets, drappi, sculptures, frescoes, chests
and chairs, and other furniture, and adorned with
shrubs and flowers. Among six ladies, some of whom
were usually children, how could this vast building be
divided ?

First of all must have lived there a large staff of
female slaves. There were cooks, bakers, bathing-
women {balnearit)f maids {delicatce), ornatrices, amanu-
enses {dietarii and cubicularii\ and portresses, forming
a perilous corps of spies. Outside the building another
corps existed, consisting of men — Lictors, who preceded
the Vestals whenever they went forth officiaUy ; Lecti-
cariif who carried them in sedan-chairs. Then they
had their Talndarii (writers), and cursores (messengers),
Victimarii (sacrificial assistants), their fictores or potters^
&C. &a Thus there depended upon the establishment
an elaborate regiment of slaves and officials, inside and
out. The functional life of it was incessant ; for the
fire, at least, had to be watched through the nighty
winter and summer. The whole building had to be
kept spotlessly clean. When^ however, we learn from
Suetonius and Tacitus that public treaties. Imperial
wills, and other State documents were confided to the
keeping of the Vestals, we may grant that many rooms
may have been needed for such archives. Duties had
been multiplied since earlier days.

The Vestals were dressed in the pallium and stola,
as the statues reveal, descending to their feet, which
were shod with the white skin of a sacrificial animal.
Their hair was nearly hidden by a peculiar head-dress

THE FORUM 43

of folded linen in bands.^ In addition, they wore a
white oblong veil called guffilndumf with which at the
moment of sacrifice they covered themselves. Pro-
bably, like the Flamenica Dialis, or priestess of Juno,
they had attached to some part of their dress a twig
of a lucky tree, arbor fdiXy perhaps of their lotus-tree.

In parting cursorily with this subject let us recall
some of their chief functions and festivities. On March
the 1st they renewed the laurels which decorated their
shrine, or i^des Yestse ; and the Pontif ex, as we have
seen, rekindled the fire which he blew out in their
presence, probably in the chapel, or Locus Intimus.
On the 6th they offered sacrifice to Yesta, because
Augustus had on that day become Pontifex Mazimus,
B.C. 12. On April 15 they went in procession to visit
the chapels of the Argei {SaceUa argeorum), twenty-four
in number. They also attended the great sacrifice to
Tellus, called Fordicidia, at the Capitol, when the un-
born calves were incinerated, and the ashes, having
meanwhile been mixed with the blood of the sacrificed
October Horse, were brought back to the Atrium Yestse
in sacred vessels, in order to be used for purifica-
tory purposes at the Parilia on the 21st of the month.
' Yesta dabit : Yestae munere purus eris.'

They took part in the Feast of the Bona Dea on the
pseudo-Aventine Hill on May 1,^ in the temple of
that goddess, which Livia restored, and which Macro-
bius calls a wort-garden, or herbarium. On May 7-15

1 ' Inf ola, fascia in modam diadematis, a qua vittsB ab ntraqne
parte dependent ; quae plemmque lata est'— ^BBVIUS, Ad JSn.,
10, 138.

' This temple had been originally erected by Claudia, the
chaste matron, who dragged the refractory barge containing
Cybele's statue, up the Tiber, B.C. 204.

44 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

the three elder Vestals plucked the first ears of com
for their sacramental cake, or mola saUa, On May 15
they accompanied the Pontifices and magistrates to
the wooden Pons Sublicius, the most ancient bridge
in Rome, and thence threw the Argean puppets, or
mannikins,^ made of rushes, bound with wool, into
the Tiber. The procession left the Forum by the Vicus
Tuscus. All their rites had intimately to do with the
food-supplies of the State, the welfare thereof, and with
Purification. June 9-15 brought them the Vestalia,
with the opening of the Penus Vests to the matrons,
already alluded to. On August 21 the Flamen
Quirinalis and the Vestals sacrificed to Census, a
primitive agricultural divinity. On the 25th they
entered the Regia, and, together with the Rex Sac-
rorum, fulfilled certain rites in honour of Ops Consiva.
Besides these they attended at the Regia in October,
when the blood of the Horse was brought thither
from the Campus Martins. In December they again
celebrated rites of the Bona Dea, but in the Domus
Publica, next their own house ^ under the presidency of
the wife of the Pontifex Maximus and the Flamenica
Dialis. They took a leading part, we may be sure, in
the Saturnalia of January 11, while on February 15
they celebrated the Lupercalia at the Lupercal, at the
foot of the Palatine, in which the last of their mola
sdUa was used up.

At the north-east angle of the Atrium, Comm. Boni
has laid bare very carefully an ancient altar and gutter,
orientated with the adjacent remains of the Domus
Pablica. This may possibly belong to the chapel in
which the December rites of the Bona Dea were

^ Simulacra.

' This was celebrated pro populo.

THE FORUM 46

celebrated, and in which Clodius ^ gained so evil a noto-
riety by undertaking the part of a spy disguised as a
female Citharist. The altar, as may be seen, is built
up of remains of sacrificial material mixed together,
with bits of pottery, burnt wood, and stones.

The remains of the Domus Publica, as previously
hinted, were utilised for foundations by the Yestals in
expanding their house, after Augustus (b.c. 12)^ made
that official pontifical residence over to them. Not a
little of its design can still be traced by threading in
and out the broken chambers beyond the northern
flank of the Atrium. There can, in fact, be followed
the west front of a large palace, having had travertine
columns and an ample gutter for the roof -drip. It pos-
sessed mosaic-paven chambers, one of which is apsidal,
while another, eastward (perhaps an impluvium), dis-
plays a white mosaic, and its wall is frescoed represent-
ing a fenced garden under a blue sky. Behind this
runs the rear wall (east) of the house. The building
exemplifies the primitive orientation. Other (but un-
identified) Republican mansions having important
dimensions have been laid bare nearer to the Arch of
Titus. There are thus displayed for us at last the Begia,
the Domns Pablica, and the ritual portions of the Atrium
Vests.

TEMPLE OF OJEBAR

The exploration of the remains of the JSdes Divi
Julii, the especial monument of the Founder of the

^ B.a 62. It was held by night. Not even the name of the
goddess might be pronounced. But the ladies danced and sang
and carried dark flowers, but no myrtles, and they sacrificed
a young black pig, seethed in milk, honey, and wine. Of,
Juvenal, 2, 86.

' On the death of iBmilius Lepidus.

46 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Empire, was in hand in November and December 1898.
The curvilinear recess, or hemicycle, at its western or
Forum face, was then first thoroughly excavated, and
the base of the altar within it exposed to view. A few
fragments of giallo antico and pavonazzetto came out of
the debris, reminding one vividly of the column of Numi-
dian marble long standing there, inscribed * Parenti
Patriae.' That commemorated the spot where, on
March 17, B.C. 44, the body of Julius, with its three-
and-twenty wounds (having been brought from the
Domus Publica, whither it was carried from the Curia
of Pompey, adjoining the theatre, at the rear of S.
Andrea della Yalle), was cremated amid the throng
of mourning, awe-stricken citizens ; the fire being fed
with benches snatched from the Basilica Julia. The
temple was begun in b.c. 33, and dedicated in B.C. 29^
being constructed on a lofty platform similar to that
of the neighbouring Temple of Castor, and for the
same reason, «^. to stand above the invading waters
of the Tiber, which gave no little trouble in those days.
Its portico overlooked the Forum, while the body of
the temple stood upon the little street which until then
had marked the eastern limit of the Forum, and, as
shown, appropriated some portion of the offices of the
Regia beyond it. This street can now be traced, neatly
paven with selce, with its eastern 'margo' of travertine.
The triple Arch of Augustus (b.c. 19) standing upon
it hides the actual width. The octagonal base within
the hemicycle, upon which the column probably re-
mained until the days of Theodosius, is in three tiers ^
of tufo concrete, bearing evidence of refacetting, and
of a marble concrete coating.

^ Rising sncoesslvely. Lowest, 24 cms.; middle, 44 cms.;
upper, 28 cms. ; of, Jordan, Topog., vol. 1. 409, note.

THE FORUM 47

Augustus, although decreeing this Temple a sanc-
tuary, and decorating it with the beaks of the vessels
taken at Actium, seems to have flouted the special
significance of it in the case of those implicated in the
murder of his great-uncle, or in any degree considered
to be their allies. The three hundred prisoners taken
at the siege of Perusia Augusta were deliberately
slaughtered at it in a.d. 41. Again, in a.d. 69, those
of the suite of the Emperor Galba, who, to escape the
vengeance of the Pretorian guard (who had overtaken
the Emperor in his litter at Lacus Curtius, and were
driving their swords into him), clung to these sacred
walls, were not spared, nor was even the individual
who temporarily reached the Mdea Yestae. Within it
Augustus placed a masterpiece of Apelles, Venus
Anadyomene, in record of the claim of Gsesar's
descent from that goddess. It was also adorned
with treasures of art which had belonged to Cleopatra
and Ptolemy. From it Tiberius delivered his funeral
oration over the body of Augustus, a.d. 14. The army
of Farnese workmen in 1545 burrowed here for marbles
but too successfully, and left this unique monument
in the forlorn condition in which we see it.

EQXrUS DOMITIANI

In line with the axis of this Temple of Julius and
that of the Coliseum has been now laid bare in the
central Forum the vast nucleus of the pedestal-base
upon which stood the equestrian bronze Colossus of
Domitian. It is made of travertine and selce concrete
irregularly mixed, and lies exactly one metre below
the exposed latest level of the Forum. Embedded in
it are seen three travertine blocks for three legs of the
horse. The fourth leg (right) was therefore uplifted.

48 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

The Emperor looked eastward toward the Palatine
where he was destined to be assassinated. The
graceful Laureate of Domitian tells us precisely that
his master's statue faced the Temple of Julius,^ was
flanked by the basilicas of the warrior Paullus and of
Julius, while behind it stood the Temple of Vespasian.^
The statue, at least of Domitian, was destroyed after
his death and the * Memori» Damnatio ' issued by the
Senate. The basement measures 5 m. in width x 11
m. in length, and it blocks one of the subterranean
galleries of C»sar. The oaken rertical beams of the
^box-casting' of the concrete are seen still in site on
the southern side. The twenty-seven strata of the
Forum levels are best shown in this excavation.

The discovery^ of a small inaugural pit, with the
votive Pontifical vases, in situ, lying within it, where
they must have been placed by Domitian himself
as Pontifex Maximus at the dedicatory ceremony,
constitutes one more evidence of the thorough method
employed by Commendatore Boni in carrying out
his exploration of the Forum. Had not the mediseval
Christians taken the platform of the Temple of Castor
to pieces, in order to repair S. Maria Antiqua, perhaps
we should have witnessed two years back a similar dis-
covery therein, with the vases placed in it by Tiberius
when he and Livia rebuilt it, a.d. 7-8. The present
pit was covered with a single slab of travertine,
trapezoidal in form, and measuring at its four sides
1*24 m., 1*22 m., 1*20 m., 1*19 m., the sharpest angle
being turned to the north, as is the case with the ritual

^ * Ab latemm passus bine Julia tecta taentnr,

Illinc belligeri sublimiB Begia Panlli.

Teiga pater blandoqne videt Concordia vulto.'
> Statius, Silv. 1. ' Borne, March 11, 1904.

THE FORUM 49

pit in the Vestal Temple. In the centre, lying on its side
(probably having been upset by invading flood-water),
lay a beautiful spheroidal amphora of reddish clay, deco-
rated with vertical raised ribbing around the body of it ;
and having a broad but graceful lip. Of the other vessels,
three are made of decorated black ware (Bticchero) and
one of yellow clay, ornamented by four bands of pale
red paint. These all lay at the western side of the
shallow pit) where the Emperor must have stood at the
ceremony, facing the East. On getting close to them I
noticed that two of them were cups with the well-
known perforated handles, such as have occurred at
the Niger Lapis, Yesta, and in the Sepolcretum, or
primitive burial-ground of the Forum — archaic ritual
cups bearing upon them, both in shape and in a pricked-
out star ornament and spirals, on their sides, the well-
known character of early sacred vessels. In the large
central vase appeared a small fragment of quartz, con-
taining gold, weighing as heavily as a lady's wedding-
ring, and much resembling a broken tooth that has
been stopped. I have just had it in my hand. We
shall probably learn from the microscope interesting
particulars as to Pontifical offerings. But, in respect
of this morsel of gold, Gomm. Boni suggests that, being a
ritual offering, it probably represents giving back to the
Earth a piece of the virtue taken from her, a gift in
payment for the disturbance of her surface.

At half-past eight on the morning of March 20
(1904), the sun filled the Forum with light, while
the wrens, smallest of birds, filled the place of the
Emperors with song. At nine o'clock Comm. Boni,
having arranged to lift the votive vases from the
dedicatory pit and examine their contents, Professor
Huelsen, the correspondent of the Times, and another,

s

V

50 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

were invited to take part. We did not know that
King Victor Emmanuel was to be present. With
Royal punctuality he made his way with four
officers of his suite to the centre of the sunny
Forum. Assembled presently on the platform above
and around the cavity, Comm. Boni descended by a
ladder into one of CfiBsar's galleries, and arrived at the
seat of action ten feet below us, two of the workmen
awaiting him there with empty pails in which the vases
to be lifted would soon be placed. As it was to be feared
the vases might suffer if placed in the metal pail with-
out intervening cloths, and the cloths having been sent
for, the delay consequent was curtailed by the writer
devoting his best handkerchief and dropping it down
to the explorer as a consecrated thing. In this the
vase came up. One by one the smaller vases followed,
until all five were brought to the surface among the
inquiring circle there gathered.

A small procession, headed by the Excavator and
the King, now walked to the little museum half-way
up the Sacra Via, where close comparison was made
between these ritual vases and cups, and others lately
found in the graves of the neighbouring Sepulcretum, the
most recent tombs in which do not date later than the
sixth century b.c. It was a memorable moment. The
vases and their ornaments, one after another, were
found, side by side, to correspond almost to a stroke with
one another. There could be no doubt that the archaic
forms and adornments used by the contemporaries of
Numa had been faithfully conserved by the Sacerdotal
Colleges, and had been used by Domitian himself as
Fontifex Maximus, in the dedication of his own eques-
trian statue, ninety years after Christ, unless the Em-
peror deliberately made use of ancient ones taken from
some local tomb.

THE FORUM 51

Sieves and water having been brought, Comm. Boni
now passed the contents of these vessels into the former
— the King looking on highly interested. Beyond
fragments of hard pitch, put in them to prevent per-
colation (?) and morsels of tortoise-shell, no fresh objects
came to light. It is probable they had once contained
wine and milk. The rest was Tiber sediment and some
chips of travertine. The piece of gold in the quartz^
mentioned already, is, therefore, the only metal object
discovered, in company with these beautiful intact
vases.

GUNIOOLI OJESABEI

The Galleries under the Forum were found almost
accidentally by the clearing of a hole met with
during the exploration of the Rostra of OaBsar, at the
western end of the Forum. Following this up, Gomm.
Boni discovered the great system of longitudinal and
transverse corridors, or galleries, buUt of ojpus incer-
tunif measuring 2*40 m. height x 1*10 m. width. At
the crossings (which have arches of tufo forming and
facing quadrangular chambers) occur their quadrangular
openings up to the Forum level. In the floors are seen
embedded here and there large lumps of the Nero
Yenato, or Niger Lapis, marble ; ^ and here and there
likewise, at fitting intervals, remains of the * pegmata/
or lifts, such as were elaborated later in the Goliseum,
and made of elm and pine and oak. These were
employed for transferring theatrical properties quickly

1 The discovery of this marble here proved somewhat startling
to those archiBologists who laboured to prove that the Niger
Lapis pavement was the work of Mazentios, It was brought
probably from Gaul. It resembles fnarmor cMcum more than
any other variety of black marble.

52 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

on to the acenes during the public games and shows
(especially Yenationes), so sumptuously given by Csesar
in the Forum. Upon these are evidenced the wear
and tear of the ropes and chains. The apparatus used
in the Forum on festive occasions must have entirely
transformed its appearance. There were set up grand-
stands of wood, and galleries called after Caius Moenius
(censor in b.c. 318), 'moeniana.'

It is matter of common knowledge that long before
the Coliseum was built, or its predecessor, the Amphi-
theatre of Statilius Taurus (now beneath the Palazzo
Gabrielli), the gladiatorial combats, and even the games
with wild beasts, were given in the Forum, which was
duly arranged for the occasions. Theatrical repre-
sentations also took place there, in which *tabulata,'
or scenery, was employed, which was managed by
* machinatores,' or shifters, and ' pegmata,' other-
wise, windlasses. Wooden stands, with successive
benches, tier upon tier, with distribution of the seats
according to social rank, were erected around the
margin of the Forum, leaving the centre to form a
natural arena. Plutarch, in his life of Caius Gracchus,
describes how that levelling politician caused mechanics
to tear down in the night the luxurious grand-boxes
erected for the accommodation of the richer folk on
the morrow. Awnings, moreover, were spread in order
to protect the spectators from the sun, as Pliny says of
Cesar's * shows* there: * Forum velis obtexit.' Evi-
dence of all this might well be supposed to have passed
completely away in a site which has undergone such
violent later vicissitudes as has the Forum Romanum,
but proof to the contrary is only the more surely wel-
come. Discovering a soft spot in the subsoil adjoining
the eastern front of the Rostra of CsBsar, Comm. Boni

THE FORUM 53

found himself penetrating into a dark passage leading
him eastward. Following this lead, by the help of
candles, he became aware of no fewer than four separate
cross - galleries of tufo opus incertum construction,
evidently of functional importance, the farthest of
them running east of the Equus Domitiani. On
closer examination was discovered in them not only
clear evidence of the working of windlasses, but actual
portions of their wood-work, which is recognised as
having been made of elm — a timber much employed
by the Romans in constructions, as well as for rods :
* Virg8B ulmese ' (Flautus). Truly, this discovery brings
back to us more vividly than all academic treatises
those days in old Rome when Dionysius says that
Ciesar suspended silken awnings over the Forum (liii.
31); and the people, we are elsewhere told, 'cum
extructis gradatim ligneis subselliis circumsedebant^ aut
ex area et porticibus spectabant.' The uses of these
galleries naturally passed away with the construction
of the Amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus, which being
destroyed in the fire under Nero, created the oppor-
tunity for building the Coliseimi.

FLAVIAN ROSTRA

The first identification (not discovery) of the now
restored Flavian Rostra (as such) is due to Comm. Boni,
who likewise attributed their northern prolongation in
a debased style to the age of Genseric (a.d. 455), or
after the assault of the Yandals upon the city. Rising
from a level to which he could not ascribe a date later
than Trajan's time, or earlier than Vespasian's, they
could not belong to Caesar nor to any Julian emperor.
Their historical interest is relatively slight.

r

54 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

ROSTRA OF CJESAR

On taking away some constructions made by Pius
YII., to the rear of these (westward), he laid bare a
small but carefully-constructed arcade of eight arches
made of concrete with facing of opas incertum (but
approaching the style called * reticulatum '), and lined
with optis dgninum (pounded pottery), presenting, more-
over, pavements of brick cut into large tesserse, such as
are seen in the small chambers of the Vestals nearest
their Shrine. The upper member of the cornice is
restored in a later style. This structure in his opinion
formed the ' suggestus,' or long platform of Caesar's
Rostra, upon which stood the ' subsellium,' or stand for
the Orators and tribunes. Boni was led to that con-
clusion in some degree by a well-known * Denarius ' of
M. Lollius Palikanus, of the year B.C. 45, representing
a curven edifice of five arches with rostra. The cells
measure 1*72 x 1*70 m. vertical, divided by short piers
of 60 cms.

Many objections have been lodged against this
identification. My friend. Prof. Huelsen, especially, is
of opinion that we have here really a viaduct (loctts
mbstrudus)^ resembling one near Salona, and which was
intended by its probable maker, Munatius Plancus^
(b.g. 42) to carry the reformed Clivus Capitolinus.
This hypothesis ^has not, however, as yet succeeded in
seriously shaking the attribution of the Discoverer.
If this arcade was only intended for the support of a
road, it may be asked, why did its makers lay out a
neat pavement, extending five metres in front of it,
toward the Forum? Moreover, it is not determined
whether Munatius restored, or entirely rebuilt, the

1 * A Monatio Planco £des Satubni ' (Saeton., Aug., c. 29).

r

*

• •

THE FORUM 55

Temple of Saturn. The level corresponds to the Forum
of Caesar's date.

ABOH OF TIBEBIUS

Two of the cells of the Rostra have been cut away at
the southern termination, in order to accommodate the
small decorative Arch erected by Tiberius to record the
recovery by QennaxiiciiB (a.d. 16) of the standards taken
from Varus. It consisted of one opening only, and
did not span a street. Nothing remains of it but the
foundation^ thirty feet long by twenty wide, made of
selce concrete.

Adjoining this (northward) a marble pavement ex-
poses clear evidences of some structure which had con-
tained tables or statues upon pedestals. Prof. Huelsen
thinks this may well have been the Schola Xanthi, the
office of the Gurule i^diles, the dedicatory inscription
of which was found in the sixteenth century.

In the street flanking the Basilica Julia (N.) have

been uncovered the augural pits made by Caesar while

constructing his Law-Courts and Haussmannizing the

Forum. Also at the north-west comer, remains of

the original Augustan Basilica were recognised. In a

modem drain (1856) along the flank was found a

valuable fragment of the Capitoline map of Rome,

representing the baths of Agrippa, and belonging to

Vespasian's edition of that plan. Immediately north of

the Temple of Saturn was disclosed a great early cloaca

of Tufo, having a shelf following along its north side,

within it. Near this is exposed the fine selce pavement

(previously found) of the ancient Clivus Capitolinus,

which here turned round to the west of the Temple

of Saturn and ascended the hill to the Temple of

Jupiter.

/

66 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

MUSEUM

In front of the Hereon Bomuli, or circular Church of
SS. Cosma and Damiano ^ rises a little eighth-century
oratory, once attached to an Excubitorium of the Yigiles
or night-watchmen. This has been converted into an
official Musenin for the well-sifted objects recovered from
the various excavations. It includes those found under
the Niger Lapis, those in the Regia, the Domitian
monument^ and those in the Vestal region, and from
the numerous different wells. At the same time the
Heroon itself has been likewise appropriated for housing
the casts of inscriptions, brick-stamps, and pottery from
the Basilica uSmilia and Sacra Via^; both of which
were now explored without rest, until in the latter case
the whole Clivus was laid bare up to the Church of St.
Francesca and the Arch of Titus.

BA8ILI0A iEMILIA

In the former, however, work had perforce to cease
at a point when danger became threatened to the houses
standing behind those of Michele and Antonio Fiore,
which had been purchased by Mr. Lionel Phillips. That
is to say, the development of the excavation through

1 The first church made in the Foram, A.D. 526.

' After living for months together in the Forum one came to
know numbers of the cats that resort there for love and war ;
and it is perhaps not beneath notice here that they seemed
deliberately to make use for hiding purposes of the materials
scattered about most favourable to their own colouring. Hence
we used to amuse the workmen by christening one * Gipollina/
another ^Africana,' and a third 'Gialla Brecciata.' As, how-
ever, on two occasions I noticed piebald and tortoise-shell
rats here, it would seem that they also were not a little helped
by assimilation to their surroundings.

^

of

7

a

1
1

> » ♦ #

* • ■•

JO J

-> -I > J J ■>

THE FORUM 57

a twenty-foot bank of debris soon revealed that we had
to deal with a Basilica i^milia of far grander propor-
tions than any archseologist had hitherto figured to lie
concealed in that site. This applies both to the length
and depth of the edifice. So that as the soil was re-
moved down to imperial levels the length of the outer
portico became discovered (it is true in a ruined
condition) extending for over three hundred feet
(English), west to east ; while advancing into the
central nave, we perceived that, without acquiring and
demolishing the better and larger houses behind again,
it would be impossible to disclose and examine the
northern half of the Basilica. Since then, in 1903, Mr.
Phillips has once more favoured the writer's hopeful
design to gain the Forum of Nerva (Transitorium), and
there is reason to believe that the houses will soon
be in the hands of the workmen. This accomplished,
there will be no difficulty in the way of exploring the
unbuilt-upon lower portion of the Via Oavour, which
should bring us fully into the Imperial Fora, and
perhaps some unforeseen and surprising results.

In the middle of July, 1899, 1 left Rome for change
of air. I had no sooner left than Oomm. Boni wrote
me, " I have just found the beginning of a magnificent
inscription in Augustan lettering which refers to Lucius,
one of the two grandsons of Augustus, by Julia and
Vipsanius Agrippa." This relates, of course, to the
marble dedicatory inscription afterwards competely laid
bare at the south-east angle of the Basilica, and still
lying there. The splendid angle-base of the eastern end
of the Basilica with fiuted pilasters and engaged column
had already appeared, together with several of the
little granite columns and late pedestals (from which
they had fallen), belonging (as we now are aware)

/

58 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

to an attempted restoration of the wrecked building,
probably in the sixth century — in any case, after the
earthquake of a.d. 512. * The angle-base is in itself a
puzzling architectural problem. I hope to be able to
decipher it in a few days. The granite columns do
not belong to the same building. They look almost
mediaeval. The inscription lies in fragments, all em-
bedded in a thick layer of charcoal. These are heaped
together among moulded blocks of cornices and bases
80 as to form a positively terrible sight.'

Thus commenced the excavation of the monumental
Exchange of Republican and Imperial Rome, informing
us at once that some hitherto unknown catastrophe had
befallen it, perhaps after the Empire itself had suc-
cumbed. The inscription reads :

L . CAESABI . AUGUSTI . P(lLIO) . DIVI . N(bPOTI)
PRINCIPI . JUVBNTUTIS . COS . DE8IGNAT0

GUM ESSEX . ann(os) . nat(us) . XIIII . AnG(nBl)

SENATUS.

It measures, put together, 4*74 m. in length and
0*596 m. in breadth : the inscription itself being framed.
Professor Dante Vaglieri at the time recalled what
already had occurred to myself, the passage in the
Ancyranum in which Augustus says, " The people of
Rome in honour of me designated my two grandsons,
Gains and Lucius, Consuls in their fifteenth year, of
whom, still youthful. Fortune robbed me. . . . The
Knights called them the Princes of the Youth, giving
them spears and shields of silver." The inscription
records the fact also that Lucius Csdsar was a member
of the Augural College.

But there is reason to believe that the inscription
does not belong to the monument beside which it was

SOUTH-EAST Corner Stone op Basilica 2Emil

r^

0* > J ^

% ^ o * -^

THE FORUM 59

found. Although we know that Augustus and his
relatives of the ^milian Gens contributed to the
restoration of the Basilica after a fire in b.c. 14, it
does not seem likely that this Dedicatory can pertain
to that occurrence. It with more probability may
have adorned the Basilica Julia on the opposite side of
the Forum, though it may eventually prove to belong
to a Portions Lucii. In that case, one must regard it
as having been dragged across the Forum for one or
other of two purposes : the first, to use it as a decora-
tion, or merely as architectonic material for some other
building ; or the second, to turn it into lime. In the
latter case it is difficult to perceive why the owner or
purchaser of it should not have burned it down on the
spot where he found it ; or, when it broke up, why he
should not have taken the fragments away whither he
would, easily and piecemeal. In the former, one can
understand that somehow it became wrecked, and no
longer could serve the purpose for which the owner
had intended it; so he abandoned it. But the mystery
must at present remain unsolved.

The long southern porticus of this vast building was
of the Doric order and of pentelic marble. It was
carried on a line of fifteen pilasters, with half-columns
springing from a commanding platform, the steps to
which rose immediately from the Sacra Via. This
formed, therefore, an open ambulatory, sheltering its
users from sun and rain, while overlooking (S.) the
entire area of the Forum and across to its rival, the
Law Court of the Centum Viri, or Basilica Julia.
Opening along the entire length of this Portions (N.)
extends the Imperial edition of the TabernsB Argentarise,
built of opm guadratum once faced with marble, other-
wise the offices and vaulted strong-rooms of the

T.

60 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

merchants and brokers. These corresponded to the
inter-columniations of the Porticoes, and did not open
from one into another. Behind them extended a tufo
wall without openings, dividing them from the central
body (nave and aisles) of the Basilica. A long portion
of brick-wall with dado marble mouldings still standing,
and a vertical crack in it (as if from earthquake),
belongs to a third-century restoration. Behind this,
the excavation has so far laid open the nave (12 m.), and
north and south aisles, each measuring 5 m. These
were divided by magnificent columns of 'africano,'
carrying Corinthian Capitals of white marble. On a
portion of the ruined architrave, belonging to them
but almost obliterated by the action of fire, occur the
interesting letters | favl | | besti | ^

The africano columns, of which abundant and tragical
remains are to be seen, measure in diameter 0*85 m.
The whole area preserves its mixed pavement of
portasanta, africano, and other marbles, upon which
were found several oxidised heaps of bronze coins,
seeming to show that the building was abandoned by
the dealers in haste. The smaller columns of the
same superb material belonged to the upper storey.
Crossing beneath the Basilica, transversely from east
to west, descending, that is to say, from the Suburra
(Via Cavour), was laid open a Republican

OLOAOA

finer than any yet found. The tufo blocks in it are
worked with the axe instead of the chisel. It may be
of the time of Cato. Below it was reached another still

^ *Paallas restituit.' It would be diflEicalt to convey the
feelings experienced when on washing the fragments we first
saw these significant letters.

THE FORUM 61

earlier drain. The rebuilding of the Basilica on a
far larger scale by Lucius uSmilius Paulus in B.C. 54
probably caused this portion of the cloaca to be dis-
used — the Argiletum, or street, descending from the
Suburra being pushed westward, and being given a
large drain at a higher level.

In some of the Tabernse ^ at the eastern end of the
southern Portico of the Basilica appear geometrical
mosaic pavements of the sixth centiiry. In these are
now collected numbers of beautiful fragments of
statues, male and female, and particularly some
graceful reliefs on rectangular pilasters belonging to
a double door — all bearing witness to the appalling
ruin to which the i^milia and its art treasures became
a prey. But one is tempted to ask, How is it that
the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina of a.d. 141
stands relatively well preserved, while the finely-built
Basilica u^milia has been shattered to fragments ? If
an earthquake shook down the one, it must certainly
have contained some structural defect which failed to
resist when the trial came. The roof being of wood,
perhaps of pine or cypress, fell in and burned, as was the
case at S. Paulo fuori le Mura in 1823, reducing the
marbles to lime and fragments. The western facade to
the Argiletum and the entire western half of the
remains has suffered extremely since those days from
medisBval and Renaissance plunderers and marble-
burnera The remains recovered at the opposite or
eastern end and the bank overhanging give promise
of better preservation in the portions next to be
explored.

1 The Tabernee measnre 5*40 m x 4*00 m. Their walls are thick,
90 cms., bailt of blocks of tnfo, measoring 90-98 cms. in length
by 60-60 cms. in depth.

r

62 REGENT DISCOVERIES IN

The two richly-sculptured ' riquadri ' ^ affixed to the
medueval walls of tufo here, were recovered from the
roof of the drain of the Sacra Via in front, which had
been repaired with them. They exemplify work oi
the time of Tiberius, but probably belong to quite
another building. The great Doric fragments of frieze
and epistyle figured in Labacco, Peruzzi, San Gallo,
and other sixteenth-century masters, and since baptized
and written of as belonging to a large Temple of Janu£
Quadrifrons, belonged, as Jordan rightly suspected, tc
the western angle of the JSmilian Basilica.

In the year b.c. 179, in the censorship of Marcu£
^milius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior^ the
erection of a new Basilica was decreed 'behind the
Tabemea Novsb.' This building became called both
Fulvia and iEmilia, and was so named when in b.c. 159
P. Oornelius Scipio Nasica erected a water-clock in it
In B.O. 79, its centenary, the Consul Marcus iSmiliug
Lepidus adorned the Basilica with shields.

Some of the inscriptions^ found among the ruins
recall the celebrated triumph of i^milius Paullus Mace^
donicus over King Perseus, e.g. 167.

In B.O. 54, the brother of the Triumvir, Lepidus, as
Curule iSdile, reconstructed it on a magnificent scale, and
exhibited in it a portrait of the Conqueror of Macedon.
Hence it became called the House of the Warrioi
Paullus. His descendants restored it after a fire, ir
B.C. 33, and again in B.C. 12. Tiberius in a.d. 34 had

1 6 ft. X 3 ft. reliefs with scrolls of acanthns, from which issue
rampant lions, maned and maneless.

> One fragment of Consular Fasti, stolen from the Regia, wai
foand here used as a door-silL On it among illastrious names
was that of Q. Cincinnatns and that of a * Dictator clan figendi
causa.'

T

c

^Clitus Sacba Via
(During Excavation, 1900)

Clivus Sacba Via

*

^

•••*v

1

CUKVBN Ghtablatubb of Tbmplb op Bacchus

THE FORUM 63

occasion to repair damages it had sustained, and to
these last restorations are due the beautiful sculptures
and reliefs found there. The position and survival of
the building are assured up to the fifth century by
its mention in the 'Notitia' and *Ouriosum* or Im-
perial catalogues. Gamucci, Lucio Fauno, and Mar-
liani, all attest the plundering of the site in their days
(sixteenth century). Pomegranate trees, or Malum
pundcum, have been planted here in remembrance of
Scipio Africanus and others of the ^Emilian House.

In front of the Basilica was discovered the marble
base of a circular ^Edicola, in diameter 2 m., with a
rectangular door-sill much worn down on the western
side. Situated at the junction of the great cloacae it
seems likely that we may recognise in it the Sacellum
of Venus Cloacina.

On the Cliviui Sacra Via the early imperial road,
magnificently paven with polygonal selce, was found at
a depth of seven feet below the mediaeval (fifteenth-
century) pavement. Upon it were found lying two
fragments of a curvilinear cornice and frieze in one,
bearing the bed of lost bronze letters, " (an)toninus
. . . IMP. 11. . . . (R)BSTrn7rr."

Professor Huelsen^ attributes this with much pro>
bability to a temple of Bacchus which stood near the
Sacra Via (Martial, ix. 2), a little above where these
were found. On the opposite (N.) side of the Sacra
Yia was discovered another ancient Tholus, resembling
that in the Begia, and several wells, ancient and
mediaeval. In one of the former was found a flute, in
another a column of marble and a torso of Eroa This
beautiful, I may say, grand, portion of the Olivus forms
one of the most notable of the many discoveries of

^ Aa8graben,^96 ; C. Haelsen.

64 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Commendatore Boni, who, however, did not achieve his
determination without open and spiteful opposition
from those who held the opinion that the Sacra Via, so
long exposed there, had been already thorougly exca-
vated and belonged to Imperial times. One of these, for
example, wrote to the English papers deploring the work.
" The process of suppressing one archsBological stratum
for the sake of another is rather dangerous." '' To
this (Clivus of Maxentius (?)) ought to be given the title
of puleherrima inter Romanas plateas, ... It was a
noble street indeed, running in a perfectly straight line
for the distance of 181 metres as far as the Temple of
Venus and Roma." ** This most beautiful specimen of
the architectural and engineering skill of the third century
is no more ... it has been obliterated to lay bare the
Sacred Way and its surroundings of a later {sic) date." ^
The newly-exposed Clivus (6 m. wide), with its flat-
chiselled lava-blocks (selce), may date from the days of
Caligula. It certainly served as a closed-in street
for centuries, perhaps until Maxentius erected his
Basilica, and possibly until the building across it
of the Horreum (?) by a subsequent emperor. This
enormous edifice parallel with the Basilica, which
was built a little after it, entirely closed up the
* Summa ' ^ or head of the ancient road of the Triumphs,

1 The TUiiet, February 1900.

3 I do not believe this Horreum to be the work of Maxentius,
and therefore I do not think he made a piazza here at all.
Difficulty has been created by supposing the Basilica and the
Horrea to be the work of one man and one moment, because of
their late date and similar proportions and lines. The concrete
on the Horrea walls is very inferior to that used by Maxentius,
although perhaps imitating it («/. that of the Carceres). Had it
been as hard, the building would not thus have perished so far
as it has done. Possibly, too, it was never completed.

^

Wells beside Clivus Sacba Via

? Venus Cloacina

r

• •

• .» J J

*■»■> J.

THE FORUM 65

so that traffic could no longer pass out of the Forum, nor
could Triumphs enter it as of yore. It is probable that
long before his day these may have taken their route
by the more magnificent and convenient Forum of
Peace. For the Platform of the Portions surrounding
the Temples of Yenus and Roma had invaded and
entirely cut off the old track at the Yelia, and so
desirably separated the Forum of old from free access
to the Coliseum and its noisy evil neighbourhood. Had
this not been so, Maxentius might have made his
Basilica to be entered from the Olivus instead of
placing its portico to face the Coliseum. To the
eye, before the excavation, there could be found only
three per cent, of the paving-stones which had mani-
festly belonged to Imperial highways. The other
ninety-seven per cent, are clumsily hammered mediseval
ones, with rounded surfaces, beneath which, at some
five feet down, we came upon remains belonging to a
ninth-century church, and quantities of mediseval debris,
and two coins of Sixtus lY.

Nevertheless, although we did not recognise the evi-
dences of a noble avenue,^ the ' Sacred Way ' of the late
empire (which can scarcely be said to have had one),
there can be no doubt that the successors of Carinus
(a.d. 282) did carry out some new piano regolatore over
the ancient Clivus^ though even this did not attain, I
think, the elevation imagined by Professor Lanciani ;
nor was anything encountered during the digging which^
could give a moment's regret that it was removed in
favour of the superb and well-worn track made during
the first century of the Empire. The fact was obvious
that the medisevals of the eighth century had ruined

^ Instead of ' a tortaous narrow lane ' (Lanciani) was found a
truly magnificent road of the early first century.

B

66 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

and covered with debris any especial pavement the
fourth century may have had, and had formed a patch-
work of their own. Moreover, their predecessors had
ab'eady violently pierced the successive longitudinal
walls of the Horrea flanking its south side, in order
to carry off, up to the exit (namely, to the Arch of
Titus), the materials plundered from the monuments
of the Forum; and these piercings at two points,
carried down to the first-century level of the Clivus,
and made in order to effect a short cut to the exit,
told, and still tell, their own peculiar story of early
post-imperial levels and plunderings.

Nothing, however, proved more impressive in this
respect with regard to the chronic plundering from the
Fomm than the exposed foundation, stylobate, and pier-
footing of the

ABOH OF TXTUS

Upon the northern pier, on its inner side, can now be
traced the wheel-marks and axle-tree grindings, con-
tinued perhaps for over a thousand years, gradually
scoring it higher and higher as the rubbish increased
in depth, until they cut into the relief -decorations of
the interior of the Arch. Thus these scorings form an
eloquent chronicle of spoliation, as tragic almost as the
Arch itself. On the eastern face of the monument
(which has itself been moved probably twice since its
original erection) are evidences of it having once owned
a portcullis, probably in the days of the twelfth century
Frangipani, who held the Forum and Palatine as their
fortress. The Arch has been re-erected, perhaps by Max-
entius, on a concrete base laid upon the selce of the older
meeting streets ; but it lacks notably a proper socle.

Immediately beyond the Arch (S.-E.), where the

'^

. -

t

■» > U «t « ^

T

Under Arch of Titus
(Showing wear and tear of waggon-wheels during 1200 years)

\

THE FORUM 67

Sacra Via had originally reached its summit, are seen
the scanty remains of the Temple of

JUPITEB 8TAT0B,

composed of hlocks of Tufo peperino in good Opvs quad-
raium,^ restored by Augustus and the Flavians, and
commemorating the vow of Romulus to Jove, the Stayer,
at the time of the revenge taken by the Sabines, when
they drove the Romans back to the Palatine, when the
Sabine wives threw themselves between their husbands
and their pursuing kinsfolk, and peace was re-estab-
lished. The offending Romans were driven back, Livy
says, to the ancient Gate of the Palatine, * ad veterem
Portam Palatii.' We are told likewise that Tarquinius
Priscus lived near this temple, and that when dead, his
queen, Tanaquil, addressed the people from a window
of the palace overlooking the Nova Via. Here Ovid
makes his Tristia enter the Palatine^

* Inde petens deztram, Porta est, ait, ista Falati ;
Hie Stator ; hoc primnm condita Roma loco eat.'

(Lib. ill. 31.)

Nor must we forget that Cicero's first Catiline oration
was delivered here. Upon the platform rise the re-
mains of the medisBval Tnrris Oartuloria, faced with
marble chips.

The first most important result of topographical ex-
ploration in this region is the proof given by a great
cloaca that Hadrian, in addition to removing the
O0I0BBII8 of the Sun in order to lay out the Porticus
with hifl twin temples of Venus and Roma, actually
turned aside, for the same purpose, the Sacra Via, which
previously had proceeded direct eastward. Diocletian

1 Some of these blocks measure 2*30 m. in length. It was
rebuilt by Vespasian after the fire of Nero.

68 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

and Maxentius, restoring these temples, subsequently
built across that in order to extend the Porticus.

The next operation was the opening up of the Glivns
Palatinns from its juncture with the Sacra Yia, from
which it ascends directly south-west toward the origin-
ally hollow cleft of the Palatine. It is neatly paven
and has its travertine margin. The earlier edition
of this Clivus does not correspond with the later one.
The earlier one naturally led directly to the Porta
Mugonia of the Palatine.^ That gate, which survived
in the days of Augustus, probably vanished in those
of Nero. The remains of buildings of several periods
are seen in confusing juxtaposition on the right here,
including those of a large Republican mansion of as
yet unidentified import.

OABGEBES

The Past, certainly, is rendering up many long-
hidden secrets in the Forum, and the Curiosum, the
Notitia, and other late Imperial catalogues of the
city districts, or Eegiones, prove more than ever
valuable to us. But necessarily their value is limited
by the fact that they only record the buildings con-
temporary with their writers. Often and often have
we wished to know what buildings occupied the site,
for instance, of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina,
which naturally dates within the second quarter of the
second century, and of that immediately eastward of it^
but until now we have obtained no sort of information.
A little further along the Clivus Sacra Via stands the
Hereon Romuli (once part of the Church of SS. Cosma
and Damiano), dating, as is well known, from the early
years of the fourth century, when Maxentius raised it
to commemorate his son by Magna XJrbica, whom he

^ Porta veins Palatii.

/^

* " t.

THE FORUM 69

had named Romulus and designated Osesar, although a
mere child. It stands in front (S.) of Vespasian's famous
Templom Sacrss Urbis ; but no literature has revealed
to us why it was given that important site, nor to what
edifice it succeeded. This has been left for the spade
of to-day to do. The lowest floor, of what is held by
its discoverer to be an important prison^ has gradually,
cell by cell, been explored and cleaned out. The small
vaulted cells open from a central corridor passage,
running east and west^ having floors of opus spiccUumf
or, as Italians say, alia Spina, a more graceful descrip-
tion than our * herring-bone ' ; and walls of Tufo lionafo
thickly covered with inUmaco, or stucco. The jambs
and sills of the doors are of travertine. Each cell has
a narrow shelf-seat. At present, eight of these are
excavated, but the ground shows clearly that they
travel with their central passage beneath .the portico
of the Hereon Romuli, and finish opposite the entrance
of that edifice. Therefore, some five more cells each
side of the passage may be reached. The concrete
which has been poured in to fill them up (by Maxen-
tius presumably) is so hard that a single cell took
ten days to dear.

Not only, therefore, was an important edifice
destroyed by Maxentius when he built his Hereon
(or was it destroyed by the all-devouring fire of A.D.
282?), but the excavation proves that two distinct
editions of the same building occupied the site pre-
viously ; and the earliest of these had a fioor of traver-
tine, and was probably in use until the year 192.

We then (if we admit the attribution) are aware of
the fact that besides the Career Tullianum, or so-called
Mamertine prison, the Forum possessed yet another ;
but whether this was appropriated for debtors or for
special criminals cannot be determined. On the stucco

70 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

of one cell occur some vague letters, but^ so free are
the walls from graffiti^ that one must conclude that the
cells were too dark for prisoners to see anything, except
by torchlight^ or that at the period of their destruction
they had been recently restored, or, more probably, that
they were lined, like the Piombi at Venice, with wood,
and so were not reached by the hands of those con-
fined in them. But for himself, the writer is unable
to accept the attribution of the building to a prison.
The position it occupied immediately in front of Ves-
pasian's grand Templum Sacrse Urbis, and on the edge
of the most busy portion of the Sacra Via at its junction
with the Forum, seems scarcely so much suggestive of
a prison as of a safe-repository, especially convenient
for the bankers and jewellers of the Sacra Via. But
this is not the place for expatiating. Professor Huelsen,
I believe, is disposed to fully share this view of the
matter. Whatever was the nature of the building,
Maxentius decided that it need no longer continue
there, and appropriated the site as described.

Opposite this site occur Republican houses (once
with shops), lining the Sacra Via, built of Thi/o giaMoy
each with its well (antedating most of the aque-
ducts therefore), and observing an orientation related
to that of the Domus Publica and Regia. Both sides
of the Clivus seem to have been originally possessed by
these shops.

SEPULORETUM

On the Palatine Hill, in memory of the founder of
Rome and of the migration thither of the Colony from
Alba Longa (Castel Gandolfo), a hut thatched with
reeds was kept in constant repair even down to late
Imperial days, and called Gasa Romuli. Vitruvius
mentions certain venerable sanctuaries on the Capito-

• *•

• •

• ••

Hut Uns (the Door behoved)

THE FORUM 71

line, which were likewise maintained in their primitive
features. It is not surprising that these early ances-
tors of the Romans, these Prisci Latini, should have
desired to rest after death in urns made of clay, as like
in form as could be made to the dwellings they had
inhabited when living. Many of these hut-urns have
been found since 1817 in a necropolis outside Castel
Gandolfo on the Alban Hill, and at Grottaferrata, lying
beneath the last deposits of stones and ashes ejected by
that moimtain. They consist of diminutive circular
black huts, having removable clay doors, with peaked
roof, sometimes suggesting by depressed lines the
stipida texti. Some of them have also a triangular
hole by which to let out the smoke.

While a portion of the Sacra Via was being repaved
at a certain point between the Begia and the eastern
angle of the Portico of the Temple of Faustina and
Antoninus, the workmen came upon an early tomb,
which proved to be the first of the kind found in the
Forum. It consisted of a doliutn or great jar covered
with a slab of tufo, which contained an olla^ within
which was a quantity of early pottery and an urn
(ttigurium) in the form of a rude hut, having two
handles and a cover. This dolium containing the olla,
rested in site at 4 m. below the level of the Sacra Via
of the second century a.d. It was cracked, though
not broken or meddled with. Inside it were found
incinerated bones and mud. In these were deposited
votive offerings to the manes of the departed, pulse-
scales of a fish, and ribs of a lamb. Two small black
vases, nine inches high, with projecting vertical and
horizontal rough ribs, were found with it, and some
small cups, having the perforated, ear-like handles made
familiar to students of archaeology by the collections
derived from the Terramaricoli, in the province of

72 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Emilia. As the concrete foundations for the great
temple descend beside it (N.), it is manifest that the
makers thereof must have cut sheer down through the
Sepulcretum, and become acquainted with an early
chapter in ancestral story which may have surprised
some of them. No record of their find has reached us.
On the southern side of it passes, at only a few yards'
distance, the main drain of the Sacra Via.

The occurrence on the line of the far later Sacra Via of
a burial-ground, in which evidences as to the funerary
customs of the primitive dwellers upon the surrounding
hills, the food, the ornaments and weapons, should come
to light, is a fact of supreme interest and archaeological
importance. The original ancestral path must have
conducted to the Sepulcretum. Commendatore Boni
was the least surprised by it. In 1900, soon after the
opening up of the Clivus Sacra Via, he mentioned to me
that the Prisci Latini would soon discover themselves ;
and he hoped also to find the tombs of the Vestals. The
latter burial-site remains for the present undiscovered.

Since the opening up of the Sepolcretum, the develop-
ment of the excavation has yielded more than twenty
tombs. These divide into four periods. Of them the
earliest contain pottery made of the local clay (argilla),
and resemble in all respects those of the Esquiline
cemetery found in 1874. Their date may be as early
as B.C. 1000, and no hut-urns occur. The next in order
of time are also cremation-burials. There the hut-urns
appear enclosed in a large oUa, surrounded with ciotole
(cups) and other votive offerings. The pottery is
blackened by contact with flame and smoke, and is full
of crystalline fragments.

The third variety, also cremation, is an improved
edition of the last, or tomhe a pozzo. The black pottery
presents a finer varnish, and is turned on a potter's

THE FORUM 73

wheel. Moreover, it is of purified clay, having no
crystals left in it. This has been baked in an oven.

The fourth contains the latest interment, strictly
resembling that found at Gabii in 1887, which is to be
seen in the Papa Giulio Museum. It consists of non-
cremation burial in the lower section of a tree-trunk.
This has been split into two portions by means of wedges,
and picked clear of pith with a hatchet In this the body
has been laid with its ornaments and funeral offerings
— pottery, fish, and meal (polenta), fibulae, bracelets.
The whole was laid horizontally, like a modern grave,
and was provided for by cutting into the earlier pit-
graves. The date of the latest may be as recent as the
early fifth century B.C. Most notable is it that, even
in the earliest of all these tombs, Greek influence is
evidenced by the finding of proto-Corinthian pottery.

Of special interest, further, has been the finding of
the remains of a suckling colt, deliberately disposed, with
the head occupying the centre of the circle of its bones.
This discovery immediately recalled the October Horse
sacrifice of the Campus Martins, and the separation of
its head and tail from the body, and their being carried
to the Regia for ritual purposes, closely connected (as
mentioned before) with the prosperity of the crops of
father Mars. The head was, in fact, decked with
cakes. It was this horse-veneration, doubtless, which
contributed to render the horse-taming sons of Leda so
attractive to the religious Romans of the early Republic,
and caused the erection of the earliest Temple of Oastor.
At any rate, the horse may be said to have formed the
chief ritual link between the early Mars of the Corn-
fields of the Campus, whose sacrarium was in the Begia,
and the later Mars, essentially the war-god, spear-
thrower and horse-lover. The blood of the sacrificial
horse, taken from a victorious chariot in the Campus

74 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

MartiuSy was used yearly as a charm — attradio similium
— or sympathetic magic, to evoke from the sacred fields a
flourishing crop. The contest for the possession of the
head of the slain chariot-horse between the Sacravienses,
or folk of the Sacra Via, or those of the Suburra, or
Suburrenses, may be referred to the rivalry between two
powerful and kindred races of inhabitants occupying
these hills, both of whom interred their dead in the
Sepolcretum now disclosed.

BA8ILI0A OF MAXENTIUS (a.d. 306-312)

The spade has at length rediscovered the rich marble
pavement of this grandest and latest Imperial master-
piece, which occupies the entire area between the
Templum Sacrse XJrbis and that of Yenus (S. Francesca
Romana), and opened toward the Coliseum. Upon it
have fallen colossal fragments of the vault and second
storey, crushing it into powder here and there, and
deeply indenting the foundations. Among these lie
also fragments of the coarsely - worked cornice and
frieze of Luna marble. The bases of the eight great
columns which once decorated and spaced out the nave
have been cleared. One of these columns, it will be
recollected, now stands in front of S. Maria Maggiore.

At the western end, the brick turret with a spiral
stair (newel), 76 cms. in breadth, has been explored,
and, being proved dangerous, was strengthened and
then closed up. Comm. Boni identified the huge fallen
fragment lying in the Forum Pacis (Forum of Peace)
behind it as having belonged to it The latter had
been isolated by him in July 1899. The fall of much
of this edifice may have been due to the earthquake of
1349, which ruined the neighbouring Tor dei Conti,
but fire^ as usual, has also done its work of disaster.

Basilica VlAxEnriAni {fruu East]

THE FORUM 75

The apsidal crypt now excavated, with its square piers,
measures S.-N. 1508 m. and B.-W. 12-30 m. Although
the stucco decorations show no trace of gilding or
polychromatic adornment, there is in their modelling
a vigour and effect which preserves an entirely classical
flavour.

The northern apsis of this building was perhaps made
by some later emperor who constructed the vast Horreum
(so-called) opposite. It should date from dr. a.d. 325-
350, seeing that it is not the work of Mazentius, and is
too good for Gratian. Here the Lacunaria (coffers) are
recessed fourfold, while in the original apse-vaulting they
were recessed but threefold. The whole of this later
apse may have been filled with statues of Oonstantine's
family, having a colossal statue of himself in the centre.

CASTOB and the AUaUSTEUM

On entering the Forum and approaching the huge brick
shell of the Temple of Augustus from the Yicus Tuscus,
nowadays all is so green, and clean, and comfortable,
the visitor would hardly believe a description, were it
written, of the previous condition up till 1900. That,
however, is not necessary. Old pictures and photo-
graphs will satisfy curiosity sufficiently. Enough that
the Temple itself, and that of Oastor, have been com-
pletely excavated and isolated, and made more intel-
ligible than before.

The cleaning up of the ground between the Temple
of Oastor and the Augtutenm, as rebuilt by Hadrian
(in fact, the start of the Nova Via), has brought to light
a brick portions and several more important architec-
tonic fragments of the first-named shrine, which was
here entered by a lofty flight of steps. These include
two bases of columns, as well as a capital, and part of
a fluted column (all belonging to the work of Tiberius).

76 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

■

A more important fragment than even these was found
over a drain hard by them. There is eight feet in
length of it, forming the south-eastern angle of the
pediment, including the inclined, as well as the
horizontal cornice, with the deeply under-cut Augustan
mouldings thereto belonging. This piece determines
the dimensions, and gives us a precise picture of the
pediment of this Octostyle peripteral temple, as rebuilt,
A.D. 6, by Tiberius and Drusus, from the spoils taken
from the Teutons. The torn foundations of the monu-
ment, at its south-west angle, to the Yicus Tuscus,
have been completely explored, exposing the interesting
systematic use of wooden dowels for tying together the
stone blocks.

In looking at these fragments, thus fallen from their
lofty position into the condition of stopping a drain, one
could not help recalling a humble story relating to this
Temple in days of its pristine beauty. Pliny tells it, to
the effect that a jackdaw, whose parents had a nest in
the Temple, came into the possession of a cobbler whose
shop was in the neighbouring street. He seems to
have educated the bird effectually; for it not only
learned a little rhetoric, but it used to fly of a morning
across to the rostra, and thence it would chatter away
to the passers-by in the Forum. One can imagine how
people regarded the knowing bird. It speedily became
a favourite, and, what is more, brought custom to its
owner. But after performing in this manner for a
considerable time, a rival shopkeeper, declaring that
the bird had soiled some of his wares, killed it ; either,
says Pliny, ^in a sudden fit of anger, or from sheer
envy.* The slayer seems to have been driven out with
violence by an exasperated mob, and we may believe he
did not escape with his life. The dead bird, however,
was actually honoured by a public funeral. Laid out on

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THE FORUM 77

a bier, it was carried by two Ethiopians (I suppose as
being a black bird, and thus related to the gods below,
whose victims were black) as far as the second mile-
stone on the Via Appia ' in campo Bediculi appellato,'
and there buried.

Rome abounds with these birds, and it is not unin-
teresting to observe their habits from a city roof at
sundown. They are seen returning every evening from
their feeding-grounds on the Campagna, and they settle
on the gilded crosses and bell-towers of the city until
'Ave Maria' sounds — sometimes literally blackening
them. The moment the bells cease clanging, the birds
drop into their cosy crevices for the night. One never
counts a flight, however numerous, composed of un-
even numbers. The Church of Trinity di Monti seems
usually to house eight, that of S. Andrea degli Fratte
houses twelve of them, and all interloping or blunder-
ing couples are rigidly driven off.

On the 15th July each year it was the custom for the
Equestrian order — that is to say, the Knights — clad in
their scarlet-striped 'trabea' and crowned with olive-
leaves, to assemble in front of this temple for review
by the Censors, in memory probably of the battle of
Lake RegiUus. This was called Transvectio Equitum.

In front (N.) of the Temple have been traced out scanty
remains of an Equestrian statue platform, where, Cicero
says, stood the statue of QninctiuB Marcius Tremulus,
who defeated the Hernicans, B.C. 306 (Liv. ix. 43).

S. MABIA ANTIQUA

* Rome, Faruary 20, 1900.
' The Church of S. Maria Liberatrice is now no more,
and the vast north-west angle of the Palatine, gloomy
wiih the ruins of Caligula's palace and the dark grove

78 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

of Ilex above them, may be almost said to frown over
the Forum ; for the cloudy skies, for which the present
year has been so remarkable here, still prevail. Built
in 1550, and restored by Cardinal Lante in 1617, the
late Church must have been again restored in the
earliest part of this century, although the fact has not
been noticed by Nibby or other antiquaries, for under
the base of one of its piers were lately found coins of
Pius VII.

'The orange-trees, which the nuns cultivated behind
S. Maria, will be removed to the Palatine and else-
where.'

* Bomb, Mar^ 1900.

'The orange -garden formerly at the rear of the
Church of S. Maria Liberatrice, having been re-
moved, under its southern extremity has come to
light a large fresco of the Omcifixion, apparently a
work of the eighth century. As a good deal of it
has vanished, and exposure to the air will do it
further harm, I will describe what remains of it.
The subject covers a lunette 25 feet wide, and
measures 10 English feet in vertical depth. The figures
are on a scale not exceeding 4 feet, and the whole is
painted on a blue ground. In the central portion is
represented the Crucified Christ wearing a circular
cruciform nimbus ; his body tinted red, and the cross
yellow. Under each arm of the cross stood an aureoled
saint ; while above the only remaining right arm of
the cross are two six-winged cherubs, having hands
and feet, the latter resting in flames. The outermost
of these cherubs is painted bright red. The uppermost
pairs of their respective wings are treated so as to form
their nimbi, which are filled with eyes, as also are the
grey feathers that clothe their bodies. Below is a
group of saints and angels, whose action is that of

r

THE FORUM 79

bending in adoration to the cross. To the extreme
right is painted the crescent moon. The vaulting
above shows traces of a rich non-Christian mosaic.
Unfortunately this is no more. It will be noticed
that this fresco and mosaic did not decorate an apse,
but a terminal Roman wall and vault. Beneath, on
a red ground, runs a thirteen-line Greek inscription
which will prove its connection with Byzantine times.'

' Rome, April 14, 1900.

^ Owing to the heavy rains but little progress
has been effected in operations at the lower levels
of the Forum. At the rear (£.) of the Augusteum,
however, further removal of soil has shown the
Greek inscription to extend. The Prior of the Basilian
monks at Grottaf errata was at once invited to visit
the spot in order that he might throw light on
objects so intimately connected with the life of
his mediaeval forebears in the City, but it was
disappointing to find on his arrival that he could
not read a word of Greek. The writing, however,
appears to consist of a series of Scriptural quotations
more or less appropriate to the subject of the Cruci-
fixion represented above. Beneath it are remains
of another section of this once large fresco. From
brick-stamps found by me in site in various parts of
the neighbouring walls which pertained to the north-
west angle of Caligula's Palace, it is evident that
Severus and Caracalla carried out serious alterations
also at this part of the Palatine. In a portion of
one of the inclined passages (Rampa) the workmen
have just come upon the burial-place of generations
of monks, whose bodies have been packed very close,
and distributed in two long banks.'

The excavation of the adjoining site of the late

80 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

S. Maria Liberatrice was in fact carried out without
intermiflsion, and has at last put us in possession of
one of the most interesting ecclesiastical ruins in the
Christian world — a small sixth-century Basilica.

The history of this Christian Basilica (though it was
never one of high order) is naturally of extreme in-
terest, seeing that it arose as a chapel to the adjoining
Imperial Palace of the Viceroys on one of the most
memorable sites in Rome. To have been called
' Antiqua ' in the seventh century carries with it no
little significance, though the term probably does not
refer to its own antiquity ; but to have been dedicated
to the Virgin within a stone-throw of the defunct cult
and convent of the Vestals, the former guardians of
the safety of Rome, perhaps carries still more.

The name ' S. Maria Antiqua ' has given rise to
much conjecture, and it was formerly supposed that
it betokened the especial antiquity of this dedication.
Many students of the subject looked for evidences of
third and fourth century paintings, and are surprised
at discovering no evidences which can take us back
before a.d. 570. Maybe the name merely derives from
a Byzantine image, or ' Icon,' representing the Virgin,
and showing her face, which was kept here as a relic
of inestimable value. The ' Liber Fontificalis ' informs
us with regard to an image of this nature that in
A.D. 741 Gregory III. * deargentavit ac investivit
de argento mundissimo pensante libras quinquaginta.'
This precious * Icon * — if it was once here — has certainly
vanished ; but, fortunately, the frescoes remaining
in the Basilica present us with a Byzantine figure
of Madonna and Child, enthroned, and three times
repeated — which possibly recalls it. The earliest of
these, situated on the wall to the right of the ter-
minal apsis, is considered to date from the sixth century

THE FORUM 81

The same type is recognised in the mosaics of S,
Apollinare Nuovo, at Ravenna, and in S. Marco, at
Yenice. It is a conventionalised and traditional por-
trayal, and derives from Byzantium, although the
usual rigid severity or woodenness of Byzantine
formalism is happily wanting here, is, in fact, Italian-
ised, and the gravity is mingled therefore with a
trace of natural sweetness. It may be a replica of
the defaulting ' Icon ' on an enlarged scale.

The Church later became a ' Diaconate/ and as such
S. Maria holds the first place on the list of the Diacon-
ates of Leo III. (795). In the ninth century it would
seem to have been destroyed and abandoned. This was
chiefly due to a catastrophe — the collapse of neglected
walls belonging to the Imperial Palace overhanging it.
Within the left aisle of the church remains (now re-
moved) an immense block of brick and concrete, con-
taining brick-stamps (fieri, q. n.), which belong to the
earliest years of the second century. This mass had
crashed through the gallery of the church, and reached
its pavement, ruining in its descent half-a-dozen frescoed
figures of beatified early Pontiffs on the wall behind it,
and several scenes above them, which belonged to a
series illustrating the life of Joseph, of which, however,
some still remain. The Diaconate, with its eleemosynary
establishments, was then transferred to S. Maria Nova
(now S. Francesca), near the arch of Titus, on the Sacra
Via, by Leo IV. (847).

S. Maria has been formed, as so many early churches
were, by appropriating the mansion of some official and
an adjoining Imperial Hall (perhaps Library). It has a
total width of fifty-five feet, with an Atrium and Narthex
occupying the easternmost portions of the Augasteum.
It has been a i^toro-hpusQ of fresco-work, the remains of

82 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

which are abundant, though fragmentary. These mostly
pertain to the eighth century, when the building evi-
dently underwent extensive restorations (not for the first
time) at tihe hands of Paul I. (757-67). To the left
of the figure of Christ on the terminal apse that of this
Pontiff, uncovered in 1702, and again in 1885, having
a rectangular blue nimbus, is still recognisable. Hard
by, on the right wall, appear portions of underlying
frescoes of earlier date, t,e. that of Justinian II. (?).

A salient archseological feature of the excavation is
the fact clearly displayed that the Church thus brought
back to light (which dates from the middle of the sixth
century) occupies a Roman residence, including its
atrium, peristylium, tablinum, and alse — probably the
official residence of a high functionary, and, possibly,
that of the Governor (Curator) of the Imperial Palace.
In consequence, we have now in Rome three more or
less imperfect Roman mansions, i,e, those of Livia
on the Palatine, SS. Giovanni and Paolo on the
Coelian, and the present one at the foot of the north-
west angle of the Palatine. The small space between
it and Caligula's Palace above is found to be occupied
by a magnificent inclined rampa or winding passage,
without stairs, paved, like the peristylium, with neat
opu8 sptecUum of small bricks, which reached the * Clivus
Victorise' at a level 70 feet above the Forum, or, the
basement of that residence. This had formed the
directest Imperial private way from the Palace to the
Forum.i ^t ^^e lowest turn (S.) of this passage are
seen remains of a guard-room, and a doorway barbarously
cut in the wall for the mediaBval ecclesiastical conveni-
ence, and leading to the left aisle of the church. The

1 Beoalling Suetonias (Caligula, 22), ' Partem Falatii ad Foram
usqae promoyit, atqae lede Gastoris et Pollucis in yestibuluixi
tiansfigurata/ &c.

AUGU8TBUM (PROM SOUTH)

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THE FORUM 83

whole of the vast building hitherto known to us as the
AuiniBteum, and supposed to be the work of Tiberius
and Caligula, is proved to be the work of the greatest
of Imperial builders— Hadrian. It is an unrecorded
monument of his labours in Rome, and must now
be added to the entire rebuilding by him of the
Pantheon, to the erection of the Castle of S. Angelo
(with its bridge), and of the Temples of Venus and
Boma at the head of the Sacra Via.

The Basilica, then, is approached from the Via Nova
by means of a vestibule and a grand hall (width, 32 m.),
originally vaulted, which is adorned all around by huge
niches (round-headed and square-headed alternately) for
Imperial statues. This has served the Christian Com-
munity of the sixth century for their Atrium. After
being denuded of its marbles, it has been frescoed by
them, and on the western (R.) side it has had numerous
loculi cut in its walls. The bodies of the important per-
sons herein buried having been walled up, the wall-surface
was then plastered with intonacOf painted with a legend,
or the figure of a saint, and inscribed with the name and
titles of the deceased. The Hadrianic walls are seven feet
in thickness, so that these loeuU seem to be like mere rat-
holes for insignificance. As we observe, looking at the
base of the walls, the early (sixth-century) plunderers of
the Imperial monuments have hacked and dragged out
from beneath them the great travertine blocks from
which they rise. At the centre of the left or eastern
side of this Atrium, a fresco represented the burial of
S. Anthony. This, again^ in tradition gave rise to a belief
that a Church of S. Antonio might be found here.
For instance, in the 'Mirabilia XJrbis,' it is written,
* Fast by that house (the Basilica Julia, then called the
Temple of Cores and Tellus) was the palace of Catiline

84 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

(Caligula), where was a Church of S. Anthony, nigh
whereunto is a place that is called ''Hell," because of
old time it burst forth there, and brought great mischief
to Rome' (c/. Nichols, *The Marvels of Rome,' p. 96-97).

At the south-east end of the wall is a niche preserving
a vivid portrait of a white-bearded saint named Abba-
euros (our S. Cyres), to whom once pertained a small
church beside the Forum of Trajan, called in later days
Santa Pacera. His real name appears to have been
S. Cyrus (Abbas). He is represented again in the
Basilica itself in the Chapel of S. Stephen at the ter-
mination of the light aisle.

We may now picture to ourselves the Christian con-
gregation collecting in the Atrium, and, surrounded by
frescoed walls and niches, bearing dedications to parti-
cular saints, together with* inscribed locidi containing
bodies of patrons and officials of the Basilica, or of the
Imperial and Pontifical Courts. For here it may be
mentioned that portions of the ancient palace above were
inhabited by Byzantine viceroys, but part also became
a Papal residence under John VU. (705) — who not only
repaired it with bricks bearing his name in Greek letters,
but who expressly desired that his successors in the see of
S. Peter would continue to reside there, and from thence
direct Christendom. This pontifiE was the son of one
Plato, Curator Palatii, who lies buried in S. Anastasia
hard by, with a laudatory inscription, dated A.D. 687,
mentioning his afiEectionate solicitude respecting ' prisca
palatia Rome' (cf. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., 11, 1,
pp. 442-443, N. 153). Further, the Liber Pontifi-
calls (1, 385, N. 167) teUs us that John YII. himself
' Basilicam Sanctis Dei Genetricis qui Antiqua vocatur
pictura decoravit, et super eandem ecclesiam Episoopiuna
quantum ad se construere maluit, illioque Pontificati

THE FORUM 86

sui tempus vitam finivit* (He adorned the Basilica
with picture-work, built for himself a residence thereby,
and there ended his Pontificate with his life).

Mindful of this it was with thrilling interest that, on
the early morning of January 16, 1 found one of the work-
men dragging out an octagonal block of marble (1*3 m.
X 73 cms.) from the soil immediately in front of the
Sanctuary, around which was inscribed, in well-cut
relief lettering, ' Johannes Servus Stse Marise ' in Greek
and in Latin. It is the base of the ambo, or pulpit,
mentioned in the Liber Fontificalis (1-385).

In the days, therefore, when the Basilica was still
being used, and was practically a Cappella Falatina,
a stranger visiting Rome would have seen the men
and women thronging through this lofty and spacious
Atrium from three separate entrances, the wide
central one (dating from Imperial times) probably
being reserved for Clergy and officiala To the left
of this, men would have poured in through a narrow,
roughly-cut aperture, corresponding to one on the right
of it, through which would have come the women. For
here, it is manifest that these entrances are in line
with those admitting to the respective aisles for the
two sexes in the Basilica (S.) beyond. From each of
these aisles two doorways led respectively into the
long upward-winding passage on the east, conducting
to the Palatine; and on the west, into the *Augus-
teum,' which had also become occupied by ecclesiastical
buildings. The northemmostof these two latter doorways
(opened in 1885), decorated with saints on both sides, has
been also roughly cut through the Imperial wall.

Ihiring tentative excavations made in 1702 and in
1885, these now deleted remains of frescoed figures of
eastern and western saints were discovered. They, how-

86 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

ever, were but a nine-days' wonder, and were either
covered up again or left to perish. In the latter of
these discoveries, I remember to have seen the passage
between the two chief halls of the now excavated edifice
with five saints on each side of it. Now, only the re-
mains of two of their aureoles can be made out.

OHAPEL OF SS. QUXBIGUS AND JOLITTA

Beneath a rectangular recess adorned with the still
brilliant Crucifixion (of which presently) the wall is
divided into three vertical sections. The central one
of these is seen to be occupied by a Madonna, enthroned
sitting on a large cushion, with the Infant Jesus. Un-
fortunately, the exceptionally inferior brick-work upon
which the upper portions of these figures were painted,
gave way on this level being reached by the spade, with
the result that the heads and shoulders have disap-
peared, together with portions of the figures of SS.
Peter and Paul flanking the throne. The latter saints,
however, are respectively succeeded by smaller figures
representing (as their inscriptions display) SS. Quiricus
and Jolitta, son and mother, two martyrs of Tarsus,
in the days of Diocletian, whose story is seen depicted
upon the side-walls of the chapel. To the extreme
left of the enthroned Madonna is a portrait of Pope
Zacharias (a.b. 741-752); while to the extreme right
is the seated figure, having a model of a barrel-
vaulted church in his hands, above whom is inscribed :

* + (T)HKODOTVS . PRIM(iCEBi)0 . DEFENSORVM . BT .

d(isp)ensatobe . s(an)c(t)b . d(e)i . ge(nitrig)is ,

SENPERQVE . BIRGO . MAr(i)a . QVB . APPBLATVR . ANTIQ(v)a'

— in white letters. While the other figures mentioned
are represented with round nimbi, Theodotus and Pope
Zacharias wear rectangular ones, thereby manifesting

THE FORUM 87

that they were living when they were thus portrayed.
The presence of that Theodotus (previously known to
us as the uncle of Pope Hadrian I., a.d. 772, and the
founder of S. Angelo in Fescheria) with the model
of a round-roofed shrine in his hand, assures us that
he is the restorer and decorator of at least this Chapel,
with these same paintings. It is possible even that
this chapel may have been the germ of the later
Basilica, and contained the original Icon; moreover,
that (as Father Grisar, S. J., thinks) the other chambers
of the former Pagan mansion were afterwards added as
expansions of this precious sanctuary. But if so, that
occurred two hundred years before the days of Theo-
dotus, and it cannot be proved.

The side-walls from its pavement are painted, until
this same level is reached, with conventional curtains.
To this decoration succeeds a series of twelve frescoes,
more or less damaged, vividly illustrating the story of
the two martyrs above-mentioned after their flight from
Iconium to Tarsus. The first picture represents the
mother and son conducted before the Roman magis-
trate, Alexander. The fourth shows the flagellation of
S. Quiricus. The fifth the miracle of his speaking
to the magistrate after his tongue had been removed.
The sixth portrays the mother and son in prison.

On the opposite or western wall (which has had
two small doors of communication with the chancel)
are depicted the later episodes of their lives. The first
shows the martyrs lying side by side in a receptacle
intended for a frying-pan (Sartago), which two men are
endeavouring to lift. Above, to the left, Christ, on
an aureoled cross surrounded by angels, throws divine
rays upon the two sufferers. Here follows the legend :
' + Ubi Scs OviBiovs cum matre sua in Sartaoine Missi

88 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

sunt.' The second picture describes two moments of
the martyrdom of S. Quiricus. In one, the saint is
having nails dxiven into his head, upon which an angel
(flying through the air) throws beams of benediction.
In the other, a soldier holds the martyr in the air by
a leg, as in the act of dashing him to death. The
inscription, as well as the other frescoes on this wall,
are irreparably damaged, both by having been covered
up so long and by having been once more exposed
to the caprices of Roman temperatures. At the same
time everything scientifically possible, including formic
acid, has been resorted to in order to sterilise the minute
organisms which would soon, if permitted, entirely obli-
terate the pictures. The sun never enters here. Hence
it must always have been an unhealthy spot.

There remains to describe those pictures which adorn
the dark wall by which this chapel is entered from the
sanctuary, and the Crucifixion above the vanished altar
opposite. Standing mthin and looking up, to the
left of the door appears a man dressed in brown
(similar to the colour of the ' Fhenolion * worn by
Theodotus on the opposite wall) carrying two curious
votive candles to a figure which no doubt was that
of the Virgin with the Infant Saviour. Between
these two stands a small figure^ having a quad-
rated nimbus; and beyond them occurs yet another
with a similar nimbus, wearing a splendid necklace and
holding a red flower in hand. This fresco is held to
depict Theodotus, his wife^ and children, as donors in
the presence of the Madonna.

To iiie.left ot the aisle-door, Theodotus kneeling ofiEers
two lighted candles, and turns himself toward two other
figures, a male and a female, wearing the round nimbi
and bearing tokens of martyrdom; doubtless SS.
Quiricus and Jolitta, his especial saints. To the f^igJit

THE FORUM 89

of the aisle-door are a series of saints inscribed anony-
mously ' quorum nomina Dominus sciet.' Looking up
at the lofty arched vaulting oi this chapel we detect the
evidences of noble panels of Imperial stucco which have
long since vanished. A large hole in it, corresponding
to a lump of masonry, formerly lying on the pavement
below, used to tell the story of its ruin.

Fresco of the Crucifixion. — The figure of Christ is
represented in a sleeveless, blue tunic, having two
stripes of gold on the front. The feet are nailed
separately. The arms are extended straight, and the
crucified one, wearing a cruciform nimbus, regards
with serenity His weeping mother, who is standing at
his right just beyond Longinus, the soldier, who has
already pierced the body and is withdrawing a spear.
On the other side of the Cross the executioner pushes
a sponge at the end of a cane up to the sufferer.
Beyond him stands S. John the Evangelist in a yellow
pallium and white tunic. Above the head of Christ on
a tabula ansata is the superscription in Greek letters,
and over the arms of the Cross the sun and moon,
purposely bedimmed, throw their last rays upon the
scene. On the jambs of the recess rise two palm-trees
loaded with dates. This picture must be considered
one of the most precious of Christian memorials of the
eighth century, and appears to be a copy of the mosaic
of the same subject which formerly adorned the Chapel
of the Virgin in S. Pietro, made for Pope John VII.
One burial was found in this chapel.

The chapel heading the right (or Female) aisle has
suffered so extensively that there is little left to describe
here. It is of smaller dimensions, and has been built
over a first-century pavement of tegtdoB bipedales resting
on arched vaults. The medisevals have driven a large well

90 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

through it In the rectangular niche in the wall oppo-
site the entrance of it one can trace the upper portions
of figures of five saints, i,e. Kosmas, Abbacyres, Stephen,
Procopios, Damianos. As the first and last of these
were medical martyrs highly venerated in Rome, having
had dedicated to them in a.I). 526 the church in the
Forum still known by their names, this chapel may
also have been called after them. Fragmentary
figures of at least nine other saints, including S.
John and S. Fantalemon and S. Keleos, can be made
out ; but the itUonaco has mostly given way owing to
damp, so that the remaining letters of their inscriptions
can only be filled in by speculation. These inscrip-
tions, however, like those in the Apsis and those
beside the figures of pontiffs and eastern saints and
patriarchs along the left aisle, are written in Graeco-
Byzantine characters, while all those in the Chapel of
8S. Quiricus and Jolitta (except that above the cross)
are in the Latin. It may prove to be important
archseologically that the Imperial tiles of the floor of
this chapel, where left in sitUf have an orientation 30"
east of north.

The Aisle headed by this latter chapel has likewise
suffered far more than its fellow, the sole recognisable
representations along it being three small heads and
a roughly-hollowed niche containing important figures
of SS. Anna, Maria (Eliz)abet. The wall was, no doubt,
violently swept by the falling of the right gallery and
vaulting above. It is worthy of note that S. Anna,
who was 'translated' in A.D. 715, is also depicted on
the right wall of the Presbytery. The Rev. G. Ban-
nister believes that we here have the earliest western
memorials of the cult of this saint.

At the head of the Nave fragments of the white

^

THE FORUM 91

marble-fluted pilasters of the chancel gateway remain
in situ. Above it an arch united the frescoed piers.
On the inner (R.) side of the Sanctuary-screen are
remains of a fresco representing David and Gtoliatli ;
and another, with Isaiah warning Hezekiah of his end.
Coming toward us (N.) from those piers, and in line
with them, at a distance of 2 m. 60 cms. apart, rise from
their brick plinths two grey granite columns in succes-
sion on each side, leading northward to similar frescoed
piers, one of which (that on the left) is gone. From
these latter piers, towards the central area, again pro-
ject from the ground remains of the former low wall-
screen, which centring (as at the other end) in a small
gate, closed in the quadrangular space wherein stood
or sat the sub-deacons and the ' infantes ' on each side
— Decani and Gantores. This space was termed Schola
Oantomm. Up the centre of it ran a path (interrupted
by the octagonal base of a (?) baptistery) leading to the
presbytery ; and toward the upper (or southern) end of
it stood an ambo. A portion of this has already been
referred to with its interesting inscription of John Y II.
The piers above-mentioned are all Imperial, while the
screen-walls are Christian constructions, and the granite
columns have been brought from elsewhere. This
entrance to the ' Schola ' occurred at some eight feet
distant from the central doorway to the Basilica, where
we still stand; and we notice that another enclosed
space (part of the original peristyle) has thus been
located in front of us, and before it^ by another low
screen-wall of rough brick (also once frescoed), which
continued the line of piers and columns up to the
wall right and left of us ; so that the aisles for the re-
spective sexes were cut<off from the central body of the
church. In earlier Christian days this other enclosure

92 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

would have been a'Narihex' for the penitents, and
probably was so-called, though its original function had
ceased in the period when this church was made.

Turning our attention now to the left (or Men's) aisle,
its wall is seen to be centred by an enthroned fresco
of Christ with cruciform nimbus, holding a book in his
left hand and blessing with his right. Immediately
beneath this projects from the wall a low rectangular
reliquary lined with marble. It may once, perhaps,
have held a piece of the Cross or some such relic.
Beside it, either way, runs (in fresco) a white conven-
tional curtain with tassels, recalling to us those hanging
from rods, which were used instead of actual wall-
screens in many early Christian basilicas. Above this
decorative tier, on the left of Christy is a series
of eastern saints — SS. John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazi-
anzen, Basilius, Alexandrinus, Cyrillus, Epiphanius,
Athanasius, Nicolaus, and Erasmus ; while on his right
are Popes Clement, Silvester, Leo, Alexander, Yalen-
tinus, Abundius, Euthumius, Sabbas, Sergius,Gregorius,
and others, mostly ruined.

Above this zone or tier is crudely depicted, in suc-
cessive episodes, the Story of Joseph, with the banquet
in the House of Pharaoh, and also that of Jacob. This
zone was succeeded by yet another before the gallery was
reached, but the fall of the latter must have obliterated
this. Enough remains to prove that it was a con-
tinuation of the same heroic story, depicted by artists
of the eighth century.

'* These pictures have an especial interest for English
people. They belong to, and are typical of, an age
when England was in process of receiving a new eccle-
siastical culture and discipline from Rome, and when,
therefore, the relations between them were peculiarly

THE FORUM 93

intimate. Archbishop Theodore was a representative
of the Byzantine colony in Home, and he and others
would naturally carry with them to England not only
the learning and ecclesiastical discipline, but also the
art with which they were familiar. . . . When Benedict
Biscop returned from his first visit to Rome, in A.D. 678,
among other things which he brought back for the
benefit of his church at Wearmouth were designs for
pictures with which to decorate the walls. We are told
that the figures of the Virgin and the Apostles occupied
the vault (perhaps the Apse is meant), the Gospel
history the northern wall, and the visions of the Apoca-
lypse the southern. Here we have a church completely
and consistently decorated with paintings after the
Byzantdne fashion" (N. Rushforth, pp. 16, 17).

Although favoured individuals have been buried in
loetdi in the walls of both Atrium and Basilica, three or
four still more favoured ones have been accorded the
unusual honour of a marble Sarcophagus under the floor
or against the walls. The handsomest of these was
found at the entrance of the left (or men's) aisle. Like
the others, it has been stolen from some tomb beyond
the city walls, and brought in for the obsequies of some
wealthy patron or high official of this Basilica. The
sides of it are richly decorated with masks and garlands
deeply undercut, and it displays scarcely any drill-work.
It has no inscription, and the lid is wanting. Against
the terminal wall of the start of the opposite (or
women's) (B.) aisle rests, in situ, above ground, another
specimen of a later date, and interesting on account of its
unerased Pagan inscription to Clodia Secunda, wife for
seven years, four jmonths, and eighteen days of Lucius
Coelius Florentinus, centurion of the 10th Urban Oohort,
who tells the passer-by that their married life ^/utt sine

94 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

qtierda ; ' and further, that she was born when Mamer-
tinus and Rufus were Consuls (a.d. 182), and died ' xv.
Kalendas Julias/ when Apronius and Mazimus were
Consuls, i.e. June 17, a.d. 207 ; otherwise, in the year
when Severus was meditating his expedition to Britain.
One cannot help feeling that although Clodia's remains
have been ejected and their resting-place used by some
doubtless important lady unknown during the seventh
or eighth century, the memory of Clodia and her happy
married life has triumphed over very violent circum-
stances. For by means of this delightful detailed in-
scription upon her marble sarcophagus, she speaks to
us in spite of the spoliation of her family tomb, in spite
of her Paganism, the transportation of her sarcophagus,
and the final ruin of the Basilica to which it was trans-
ferred. It may well be that the Christian lady who
became possessed of this sarcophagus refused to have
those happy words erased. Probably her own name
and date were painted only on the wall above her tomb,
but all trace of them has vanished.

The earliest Christian sepulchral inscription belong-
ing to the Basilica is on a slab which covered the
remains of five people in a grave between the Atrium
and the spring of Juturna, a space which became a
gruesome cemetery lying out in front of the Basilica as
one approached it from the Temple of Castor. This
inscription belongs to Amantius, a goldsmith : < Qui
vixit plus minus annis L P(ost) C(onsulatum) Domini
Justini. P(atris) P(atri8B) Aug(usti) Ind(ictione)
Quarta,' i.e. a.d. 570.

With all these Christian interments without cre-
mation and the later Christian perversion of the con-
tiguous sacred Fountain of Juturna (Q.Y.) into a common
Latrina, we may imagine the pestilential condition of

THE FORUM 95

this spot during the Middle Ages ; nor need we wonder
that the hospital attached to the former church above
it (S. Maria Liberatrice) in 1389 had more than once
to be entirely abandoned on account of malaria. In
1529 the nuns of S. Maria were nearly all dead of it,
and the trustees of the church and hospital placed in
charge of it Sisters Ludovica and Pacifica of the IVan-
ciscan Tertiariea The tomb and inscription of the
former came to light high up in the excavation. Her
remains are still there. Nor, again, need we wonder
that the place became known as ' Inferno.' Yet these
poor nuns and their priests, with their little Church of
S. Maria Liberatrice, went on faithfully praying day
and night to be delivered from plague, pestilence, <kc.,
while they sank their drinking-wells again and again
into the soil thus doubly polluted by their Christian
predecessors. Truly, when the complicated excavation,
so ably carried out, came down through the older levels
with their appalling filth, and there, lying defaced and
scattered among it, we saw brought up to light again the
statues of Apollo, iSsculapius, Diana Lucifera, the
Pagan gods of health, and the bubbling spring of
Juturna itself (over which the Vestals had presided),
our respect for Cremation, for classical methods of sani-
tation, went up at a bound. We felt that the real
dragon, whose pestilential breath killed men and women
there, and which church legend states was slain by
S. Sylvestro, had been in reality foul emanations and
typhoid fever; and that the saint had maybe scotched,
but indeed not killed it.

As yet we have no evidence to prove what was the
immediate reason for Hadrian's labours here. The
Augnstenni, built by Tiberius and Livia in a.d. 68 (by
strange coincidence with the tragic extinction of the

96 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Augustan DyDasty), had been struck by lightning {cf.
Sueton. Galb. c. 1) and its portico with a valuable library
burned.

We are also told that the sceptre was struck from the
hand of the statue of Augustus. Its restoration was,
doubtless, begun by Vespasian. Domitian (a.d. 81-96)
rebuilt it, establishing close to it a temple in honour of
his favourite Sabine divinity, Minerva ; upon the walls
of which used to be fastened military diplomas {cf. Corp,
Inscrip, Laitruj III. p. 916). Here, then, at the close of
the first century, we find were located the Augusteum and
the Temple of Minerva adjoining it ; though some archae-
ologists wisely imagine that this Minerveum was perhaps
a small shrine attached to Castor. Others again think
that the present Augusteum housed the library or
libraries of Tiberius, brought from the Palace above.

Between this period and the reign of Hadrian (or
during this reign), some great catastrophe must, there-
fore, have occurred to these edifices which compelled
that Emperor to turn his attention to their wholesale
reconstruction from the foundations. Gold and silver
coins, of Antoninus Pius, belonging to a.d. 159^ record
the completion of this astonishing work.

Since this excavation took place more ground has been
opened up between the Temple of Augustus and the little
circular Church of S. Teodoro ; with the result of un-
covering a trapezoidal portions surrounded by important
Tabernse, or shops built in opua quadraium, somewhat re-
sembling those of the Basilica iSmilia, and having pave-
ments of opiis spicatum, A surviving fragment of the
marble plan or map of Rome already had given the design
of this. What has to be added to this plan in consequence
of excavation amounts to detail and the addition of
debased inner works belonging to post-Imperial days.

THE FORUM 97

The poverty in the matter of inscriptions here has
been notable. The marbles were robbed in very early
days, and, as the buildings here faced the popular Yicus
Tuscus, this is scarcely matter for surprise.

0BAT0B7 OF THE F0BT7 MABT7B8

Immediately south-east of the Temple of Castor was
unearthed an oratory of the tenth century, having a
width of 11*60 m.^ and a length, to head of Apsis,
9*70 m. It was paved with scraps of giallo, serpentino
and porphyry. The Apsis (of 4*40 m.) is painted with
a fresco representing the martyrs of Sebaste in Arme-
nia, who were condemned to stand in an icy pool;
truly in curious contrast to the reputation of this spot^
so long called * Inferno.' The fortitude of one of the
number having failed him, he is seen stepping out of
the pool. An angel is said to have taken his place.
Just inside the oratory were found some important
sarcophagi. The building once had a gallery round it.
It stands blocking the Nova Via.

STA. FBANOESOA BOMANA

Sta. Maria Antiqua having been thoroughly explored,
and its contents carefully tabulated, the vaultings of
its aisles have been reconstructed, so as to preserve it
for ages to come, and a most solemn and remarkable
Christian monument it will always prove to students
of Church history. And now attention is turned to
the church which, under the title of Sta. Maria Nova,
Leo lY. (847-55) erected at the head of the Sacra Via,
which in time came to fulfil the office of substitute for
the Sta. Maria Antiqua which had been demolished
by the collapse of the Imperial Palace walls long

98 REGENT DISCOVERIES IN

overhanging it. The Diaconate was transferred to
the new church : ' Basilica beatie Dei Genetricis, quae
olim Antiqua vocabatur, nunc autem sita est juzta Via
Sacra ' {Liher PonHficalis, 2, 145).

As is well known, this church had its title changed
after the canonisation, in 1608, of Sta. Francesca
Romana (Ponziani), who had been buried in it in 1440,
and whose remains had proved peculiarly fruitful in
miracles. In fact, soon after her decease, solid gifts
of money enabled the Olivetan monks then there to
enlarge their cloister and perpetrate the direst vandal-
isms in the portico and cella of the Temple of Venus,
to the rear of their church. The porphyry columns of
the Fronaos had, several of them, been removed long
before, probably by Honorius I. ^625), after he plun-
dered the gilt bronze tiles from the roof in order to
cover the early basilica of S. Peter.

Fragments of these columns yet remain at the south
front of the neighbouring Basilica of Maxontius, having
been placed there to adorn a late portico of that edifice
after its original entrance (toward the Goliseum) had
been closed up, and a new one with a flight of debased
stairs was opened from it on to the Sacra Via ; that
is, after the destruction of the Horrea in front of it.
In 1450, the few remaining ones were turned to base
account by leave, if not by command, of the learned
Nicholas V. In 1819, Antonio Nibby says there was
found between the church and the Arch of Titus a
limekiln, 4n which lay fragments of precious marble
mouldings, lumps of red porphyry broken by hammers,
and belonging to the internal decoration of Hadrian's
masterpieces — ^the twin temples of Venus and Roma.'
Porphyry being of no use for cement, it was used to
line the kilns with.

THE FORUM 99

This admirable archaeologist (whose works have
proved, like the temples themselves, a quarry for the
bookmakers of our own times) again noticed, when Sta.
Francesca was being restored in 1828, that the cores
of its walls had been built with the materials of the
temple. He further considers that the devastation at
that spot had been chiefly due to Paul II. (Barbo),
1462, when constructing the vast Palazzo Yenezia.
At any rate, in the fifteenth century arose the present
edition of the graceful cloister, of four bays, some 80
feet square, in two tiers of round arcading carried
upon octagonal brick columns, with short, archaically-
foliated capitals. The latter-day monks finding them-
selves needing more room, filled up these bays with
thin, brick walling. All this is being rapidly removed;
and having been over every part of the building, I can
safely prophesy that this will ultimately make one of
the most attractive museums in Rome. It will include
the cella of the temple, wherein (under cover also) the
larger fragments of cornice and frieze found embedded
or buried, will be placed to advantage. The tower
of this church is probably the most perfect of the
thirteenth-century campaniles in Rome, and visitors
to the museum in future years will be able to make
more delightful intimacy with it, and the still jewel-like
green majolica plates, and porphyry discs and crosses
inserted in its successive open tiers, and which catch
the afternoon sun so happily.

FONS JUTURNiB

' Quae presidet stagnis e fluminibus sonoris.' The
late Church of S. Maria liberatrice, or Libera nos^
a pcenis infemis^ was built early in the seventeenth*

100 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

century. By good fortune its builders in laying the
foundations failed to discover the second Well of
Juturna and the shrine (iEdicola), slightly trapezoidal
in form, belonging to that nymph, with its pronaos
and ceUa^ which were standing, orientated in the
ancient manner, immediately south of it. It is, there-
fore, by chance only that the latest version of the
.i^icola Juturnae has survived to our time, together
with the inscription ' Juturnai Sacrum ' upon the
epistyle. Thus a prediction of the late master-archaeo-
logist, Jordan, was fulfilled. But the excavation as it
proceeded laid bare, other objects only a little less
important, namely, the Lacus Juturnae, or pool ; in-
scriptions relating to the Curatores Aquarimi (who, in
Imperial days, had their offices here) ; and a number
of statues of the ancient divinities presiding over
Hygiene, all, alas, in a much mutilated condition —
Jove, Apollo, JSsculapius, Minerva (Medica), and
Castor. The sacred pool, exquisitely reformed and
redecorated in the second century a.d. with white
marble, proved to have been turned into a Christian
latrina; and these gods of health, together with a
small marble altar, were lying scattered and ruined in
a deposit four feet thick of an indescribable filth.

The deep pool ^ (or tank), fed by two powerful springs,
is in form oblong,^ cased with white marble, and centred
by an isolated quadrangular pedestal intended for a
statue or altar. So profuse was the outpour of the
spring when the men reached it that engines had to
pump day and night for some time in order to keep it
under control until the explorer could turn it away into
the neighbouring Cloaca. Within the basin were then
found many hundreds of glass phials, lamps, vases, and

1 M. 212. • M. 5-13 X 5-04.

By F. TiicteU, Etq.
B SUBINB OP JUTURNA

r^

* • • >' •

* ■> D ■> t "

• « « « -1

J
■J ■»

Shrine of Juturma a

X

THE FORUM 101

jars, dating from times when the sacred water was
fetched from Lence for private as well as for public lus-
trations of House and Altar down to the days when the
aqueducts worked no more and the Tiber was once
again a poisonous sewer ; and even this spring, fouled
with contaminations, was sought for drinking-water.

On the Futeal, or marble well-head, which stands in
front of the shrine, and slightly out of line with the
axis of it, is inscribed twice, once on the lip or cornice
and once upon the entablature —

M . Babbatius . Poijjo

AEd(iLI8) Oub(ULI8)

JUTUBNAI SACBUM . B£ST(iTUIT)

PUTEAL.

This Curule ^dile who restored the Puteal of
Juturna in the first century B.C. may have been a son
of the Barbatus PoUio mentioned by Cicero.^ Yaglieri
thinks it was that individual himself. The well was
likewise full of soil and fragments of jars, &c. In
front of it on a small stylobate was found overturned
a fourth -century altar of Luna marble ; upon the
panelled sides of which are sculptured, in relief, figures
framed with leaf-moulding. The subjects are attributed
by Marucchi to incidents in the career of Juturna (?). On
the sides appear the patera and prefericulum. On the
other altar, found in the Lacus or pool, in like style
and manner are sculptured Leda standing : Diana
Lucifera (torch-bearer), the Dioscuri themselves, and
Jove standing, sceptre in one hand and lightning in
the other, and draped with the Himation.

Here at last, then, was rediscovered that famous

1 Phillip, 13.

102 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

Basin which collected the Sacred waters in their out-
flow, of whose health-giving properties Frontinus (De
Aquoeducttbus, 1, 4) eloquently testifies. This writer pro-
hably saw it decorated with holy laurels and roses on
January 11, the anniversary of the Battle of ^Egates
Insulae (b.c. 241), by which Lutatius Catulus brouglit
the first Punic War to a close by defeating Hanno at
sea, sinking fifty of his ships. For Catulus vowed a
temple^ to Juturna, goddess of waters, if he should
gain a victory at sea ; so that sailors might pay their
devotion to Juturna, as well as fishermen (piscatarii)^
and such a collegium as the ' Fullones.' * Juturnse f erias
celebrant qui artificium aqua exercent/

Servius (a.d., iEn., xii. 139), however, was thinking
probably of what Propertius^ and the medical prac-
titioners and the Yestals related of the waters when he
wrote, ' Fons est in Italia salubenima . . . de hoc fonte
Romam ad omnia sacrificia aqua afferri consueverat.'
The excavation showed only too well how revered the
spot had been from this point of view, having evidently
formed the meeting-place of the gods of Health. But
with the common folk there was chiefly remembered
the ever-delightful legend of the appearance of the
sons of Leda watering their steeds after the battle
of Regillus, the cause and origin of the adjoiniug
temple; moreover, they had appeared a second time
there announcing the victory of i^jnilius Paulus over
Perseus at Pydna.^ But the links between them and
Juturna become still more obvious when we learn
that the medical practice of putting patients to sleep
and dream in the porch of certain temples was used
in their own, * in quorum templo somniorum in-

* JMes Jaturose. * Lympha Salabris.

< Plat., Vita j£mU. PauUi.

I

Pool, or Lacus, ■

"/■

■ - t

THE FORUM 103

terpretes haberi solent' {Schol. ad Pers., ii. 56); and
Oommendatore Boni thinks that some of the mosaic-
paven little passages north of the Lacus may have
been used for such a purpose here. ^Multi segroti
banc aquam peter e solent^' wrote Yarro. It is possible
tbat the various Guilds concerned with the worship of
Juturna may have used and decorated these chambers.
Tbe mosaics represent the sea or river, with fisher-
men and fish and a sea-gull (?). Three pavements are
superposed here. Behind these (E.) a broken external
rampay or stairway, sustained on mounting arches is
seen leading up to the Palatine. There remains to
complete the excavations in this corner of the Forum
only the Nova Via,^ which at present lies some fifteen
feet below its present level, and should come to the
back of the apse of the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs.
There we .may expect further enlightenments of an
interesting nature.

it

THE ALTAR OF PEACE

Visitors to the Museo delle Terme have noticed work-
men at various times during the past year (1903-1904)
busily modelling and then setting together portions of
a design in relief, reproducing some important monu-
ment of ancient art. They have been, in truth, work-
ing under Professor Pasqui, endeavouring to reconstruct
the magnificent Ara Pacis decreed by the Senate in
honour of Augustus, B.C. 13, after his successful under-
takings in Spain and Gaul which signalised the peace
of the Roman world. The Emperor, modestly refusing
the proffered dedication of it to himself, offered it in-

^ 'Forte revertebar festU Vestalibns ilia,

Qua Nova Romano nunc Via junota Foro est ' {FaHi, vi. 395).

104 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

stead to Peace; and at the close of January of that
year he dedicated a colossal altar, surrounded by a
marble screen upon which were sculptured pannelled
reliefs representing processions of his relatives, noble
friends, priests,^ and others. These were all crowned
with laurel, and bore branches of olive in their hands.
Above them ran an enriched frieze displaying elabo-
rately-carven foliations, flowers, and festoons, typifying
the fertility of the earth. It was a golden moment in
the Art- life of Rome, and the design and workmanship
were of the finest. The monument practically con-
sisted of a rectangular platform (having a front and
back of 36 feet, with sides measuring 33 feet), reached
by a flight of steps from the Via Flaminia (Corso).
The sculptured precinct wall, covered with the afore-
said reliefs, was interrupted in the midst by majestic
gates, probably of gilded bronze. Within this inclosure
rose a second platform, gained by four more steps, and
upon the further side of this stood the altar itself.
Thus, in its entirety, the monument resembled a
graduated depressed pyramid.

The position given to it in the Campus Martins cor-
responds with the angle of the Via S. Lorenzo in
Lucina, where that street opens out of the modem
Corso, nearly opposite Yia Frattina at the Palazzo
Fiano-Ottoboni, in the cellars and among the founda-
tions of which the present exploration and excavation
was commenced. For, stimulated by the fine volumes
devoted to illustrating this great monument by Pro-
fessor Petersen of the German ArchsBological Institute
in Rome, the Municipality and the Minister of Public
Instruction, having come to agreement as to the
significance of precisely locating the site, approached

1 Flamens.

t

(

THB FORUM 105

Signor Almagia, the proprietor of the palace, who
(himself a skilful engineer and lover of archsBology)
not only helped to bring about the desired research,
but has generously aided it with funds. In consequence
the work was put into the hands of Signor Cannizzaro,
who began operations on July 27, 1903. Early in
August an opening was made in Yia Lucina, and pre-
sently traces led the explorer right on to the longitu-
dinal axis of the spacious altar, even to the sill of the
great door which opened to the Yia Flaminia.

As far back as in 1568, Cardinal Ricci of Montepul-
ciano wrote from Rome to the secretary of the Qrand
Duke of Tuscany that beautiful reliefs sculptured on
immense blocks of Greek marble (it should have been
Carrara) had been found when the Palazzo Ottoboni
was being built, and that they would be soon forwarded
to Florence. These ones (six in number) are still to
be seen displayed in the Uffizi Gallery. Other frag-
ments went to the Villa Medici on Monte Pincio, where
they yet adorn the rear wall of the College. During a
restoration of the same palace in 1859 some dozen
further fragments came to light. On February 16,
1899, while visiting the choir of the Jesuit Church,
where repairs were going on, the writer was fortunate
enough fco recognise another fragment, which had been
utilised since 1623 as the gravestone of a bishop of
Lucca. The upper face of it had been smoothed and
inlaid with verde antico and broccatello marbles so as to
represent the Arms and cardinal's hat of Sebastiano
Foggio, the said prelate. On the under side were
sculptured scrolls and foliations of unmistakable Augus-
tan work. This was another fragment, measuring six
feet by four. It is now in the museum cloister.

The present condition of the exposed monument

106 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

would indicate its having been destroyed both by fire
and by deliberate blows, and the broken fragments are
found lying at no distance from the portions to which
they once belonged. Seyei'al pieces of the jambs of
the doors have been recovered, as well as of the angular
pilasters projecting from the marble screen wall. One
of the most significant features now recognised is that
of a second, or posterior, door on the eastern side of
the monument with the broad steps leading to it, as
represented in a fine 'bronze' of Domitian. It is
necessary to state that the excavation has required
the formation of several small tunnels, in which are
encountered the portions still remaining in 9itu, as well
as splendid decorated blocks which yet lie obstruct-
ing progress and proving very difficult of extraction.
A much later enclosing-wall, of brick and travertine",
has been likewise found, having been constructed
apparently with a view to isolate the Altar from imping-
ing edifices. Much, however, remains to be explored
still before we can hope to see a possible, and worthy,
rehabilitation of this capolavoro of antiquity ; to which
end it will further be needful that the Louvre, the
Uffizi, and the Vatican shall generously contribute the
various portions already in their respective keepings.

The excavation has been carried on under consider-
able difficulties, lying, as the monument does, 18 feet
below the street level and subject to the serious influx
of spring-water. It is lit with electric light.

LACUS CUBTIUS

■ *
Three features in relation to the main tradition of

this site are marked ones. The first, that it was

THE FORUM 107

marshy ground ^ in the days of the war between Tatius
and Romulus ; that it was connected with an act of self-
devoted heroism ; and that this latter caused it. to become
a < locus religiosus/ with the name of Curtius attached.

< Curtium in locum palustrem qui tum f uit in Foro
antequam Cloacse sunt factse, secessisse, atque ad suos
se in Capitolium recepisse ; ab eo lacum invenisse
nomen * {Ling. Laty v. 149, 150), writes Varro. Curtius
plunged in at a marshy spot which was in the Forum
before the CloacsB were made. That is to say, the
Forum was then watery — a back-water, in fact, of the
Tiber — and needed to be crossed in a boat. In
attempting to pursue the Romans, therefore, Curtius
plunged bravely in, but he lost his life.

A second tradition, belonging to the days immediately
succeeding the Gaulish invasion, connected it with
another Curtius, a Roman knight, who, in order to
stay the plague which was decimating the city, devoted
himself to the gods (perhaps Dis Pater) below by
leaping aU armed and on horseback into an ominous
gulf that refused to close — as the Oracle said it would
— until it should receive the gift most precious to the
people. And it closed over him. This story suggests
a human sacrifice.

A third story is related to the effect that the spot was
enclosed by Curtius, a consul, because it was fidguntum,
or a place struck by lightning, B.c. 446 (Tacta de Omlo).

In whatever light we may regard these legends,
relating to an abyss once in the ancient Forum, we can
entertain no doubt that, to the Roman mind through-
out the ages, this peculiarly sacred spot was especially
linked with the idea of devotion to one's country.

^ * Hie obi nunc fora snnt, ndsB tennere palades

Amne redandatis foBsa manubat aqub ' (Ovid, P<iU%, vi. 401)

108 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

It was adorned in various ways. Julius Caesar placed
an altar there on successfully giving his great gladia-
torial games ; and other altars were added, for Ovid
writes : —

' Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras,
Nunc solida est tellus, sed lacns ante fait.'

(FatH, vi. 403).

Moreover, it was shaded by a fig-tree,^ an olive, and a
vine. The first of these had formerly grown in front
of the Temple of Saturn, and at last had overturned
the figure of Sylvanus, and been declared sacred by
the Yestals B.C. 493.

Upon the discovery of the base of Domitian's monu-
ment, which had interfered with two of Csesar's dis-
used galleries, it became certain that the Curtian
Lacus must be at hand. For, speaking of his master's
equestrian statue. Statins (Sylvse, v. 66) says : —

' Ipse loci Gustos, cujns sacrata vorago,
Famosique Lacus nomen memorabile servant.'

It may be doubted whether the Romans admired Domi-
tian's presumption in placing his hated image at so
sanctified a spot. One thing was felt to be certain,
Csesar himself had respected the monument which he
had once adorned, and it must be found therefore in
the space between two of his galleries adjoining
I>omitian's work.

On the 19th of April Hhe sacred area,' so much
desired, was brought to lights and rapidly cleared of
superficial debris. It was then perceived that Csesar
had carefully passed one of his galleries immediately
west of it, and the other to the east. Roughly speaking,
in shape the monumental area resembles a primitive

1 PUn., H. N., XV. 40.

THE FORUM 109

flat-bottomed barge, about thirty feet long by twenty
broad at the stem (W.). The pavement beneath the
latest one becoming exposed proved to be of tufo, orien-
tated with the Cloaca Maxima. Upon it at the west,
or broad, end can be traced the cement attachments of
the small altars. At the further, or prow, end occurs
a dodecagonal base ten feet in diameter.

The whole was fenced round with a stone parapet.
Here then was the spot where the agents of Otho slew
the ill-fated Galba, and here his body lay until a
common soldier cut oS his head and carried it to the
Pretorian camp, with his finger in the mouth. From
hence fled his adopted son Piso^ to the Temple of Yesta,
whence he was dragged forth and slain beside the door.

But such incidents, although interesting, seem to be
of minor importance when compared with the older
significance of the place in Roman regard. 'Many
and noble deeds have given glory to the Roman
Forum,' wrote Valerius Maximus ; ' but not one of
these radiate, even to our day, such a splendid light
as does that deed of Curtius.'^ It may be well to
recollect with it the October Horse sacrifice to Mars.
In those days of Valerius, however, it became associated
with the welfare of the patriotic Augustus, and Sue-
tonius tells us that folk of all ranks once a year used
to throw into a puteal here a piece of money as an
offering for his health. Some of these pieces will pro-
bably be found.

SACB A VIA

The course of the Sacra Via has been in time past
almost as much a subject of contention as was of yore
the actual head of the October Horse by the dwellers

^ Lib. y. Cap. 6.

110 RECENT DISCOVERIES IN

upon it with their rivals of the Suburra. For just as
among Arian peoples the head, or start of the spinal
power, was held to be the most important member of
the animal, so among archaeologists was the Sacra Via
to the Forum. The latter contention, however, has
fortunately been free, if not from violence, from the
stains of archaeological blood. Festus (Lib. xvii.) wrote,
* Sacra Via in urbe Roma appellatur, quod in ea f oedus
ictum sit inter Romulum ac Tatium.' It is nevertheless
probable that the sanctity of the original track antedated
the day of those sage warriors ; and that it originated in
a path leading 'to the sacred Capanne,' or primitive
temples, and cemetery (Sepulcretum) above the marsh,
wherein the *prisci Latini,' *Sabini,' and their fore-
bears, interred the remains of their respective kindreds.
This path, in the course of time, became common to
the Septimontium ; and various tracks led into it from
both the Esquiline and Palatine hills. The site of the
Sacellnm Strenlae (whence Varro states that it began
at its eastern end) has not yet been discovered. In
any case, it must have stopped at the Sepulcretum
until the retiring waters, and, finally, draining opera-
tions, permitted it to be continued through the lower
valley of the Forum, so as to complete a union with
the Olivus Capitolinus. Possibly the Janus shrine
was originally placed so as to commemorate this
junction! This lowest portion became denominated
' Ad Janum,' or ' Infima,' as distinguished from the
*' Clivus ' and ' Summa.' From this long track duly de-
veloped the rich Republican street lined with temples
and houses, descending from the Velia, so as to skirt
the northern flank of the Begia, and then lose itself
beside the open Forum, even as a stream sometimes
does in a pool, before it took up again, and made

THE FORUM 111

for the Paternal Temple of Jove ' Capitolinus.' Its
conditions, like those of the historic buildings on it^
kept on improving until the time of Kero : and from
having been a simple path to the place of the ancestral
dead, it served to celebrate for centuries the proudest
triumphs of the living.

From that date, however, the upper Sacra Via began
to be seriously interfered with, and probably this was
not merely arising from Imperial caprice, but because
the trade-centre of the city, and its pressure, had passed
into the region of the Imperial Fora. In any case,
Nero appropriated the ' summa,' or Velian ridge, and
built his ' Domus Aurea ' across it, from the Palatine
to the Esquiline ; at the same time planting upon it
his own colossal portrait-statue. This latter remained
there until a.d. 121, though with features altered, so as
to represent the sun. By this date the pressure of
business-life had forsaken the Clivus Sacra Via, and had
fully betaken itself to the * Forum Pacis * and * Forum
Transitorium ' ; so that the noisy multitudes surging
to and from the Coliseum needed not to invade the
Sacra Via, nor did any crowd need to throng it, as was
often the case apparently, even in the days of Cicero.
Hadrian was therefore able (perhaps without opposi-
tion) to annex the ' summa ' for his magnificent Porticus
and the enclosed Temples of Yenus and Roma ; thereby
effectually shutting off the amphitheatre from the
religious centre of the city.

It follows, then, that the Triumphs became far more
splendidly accommodated by passing east of those
temples and through the Forum of Peace, and so round
into the lower Forum Romanum. In any case, ex-
cavation has now shown that the head of the Clivus
Sacra Via was built over in solid Imperial style and

r>^

112 DISCOVERIES IN THE FORUM

deprived of its functions considerably before the long
parallel walls of a colossal building (now displayed) were
raised, passing over it diagonally, in ordei to stand
vis-iL-vis with the Basilica of Maxentius.

So that what with the colossal Basilica on its north
flank, the huge temples on its east, and the prodigious
Horrea south of it, the Imperial Glivus became not
only a ctd-desac, but an oblong enclosure ; not merely
unadapted for public processions, but impossible for
them. The consecutiveness of these vast encroach-
ments upon it tells faithfully the story of topographical
evolution at this region, while it brings the outline of
the life of the famous Clivus to a solemn close.

STYLES OF WORK

Opus qtuidratutn. Solid squared stone-work.

Opu8 IcUeHtvunu Brick- work.

Oput ineertum,^ Irregular smooth net-faciog, with small pieces

of tuf o.
Opu8 reticuUUum.^ Regular, net-like, facing with tufo, or stone,

or with brick.
Opus miostum,* Courses of brick, enclosing courses of tufo.
Opus signinum. Pounded brick mixed with lime and pozzolana.
Opus spicatwn. Small brick pavement in wheatear fashion.
Opus sectile. Floor decoration, with cut marbles, or glass, in

geometrical design.
Opus alharium. White wall-stucco.
Opus musivuffL Mosaic of tesserae.

1 This style passed away, evolutionising into Opus reticuUUum in
the early years of Augustus (Cf, Bostra of Caesar).

3 This work went through various modifications ; and survived for
some three hundred years, though little favoured after A.D. 200 —
Fons Juturna.

s Circus of Maxentius on Via Appia.

X

INDEX

Mdvb Divi Julii, 45-47
JBdes Saturfai, 54
JEdes Vestse, 27, 35
Agrippa, baths of, 55
Amantiug, tomb of, 94
Amphitheatres, 52
Appias (Deoemvir), 25
Ara Volcani, 24
Arbor felix, 43
Arch of Augustns, 46
Arch of Severus, 24, 27
Arch of Tiberius, 2, 55
Argei, 43
Argiletum, 19
Augural pits, 18
Augusteum, 75-76, 95

Baooellatuba, 21
Bannister, ReT. G., 90
Basilica Emilia, 2, 19, 21
Basilica Julia, 19, 55, 59
Basilica of Maxentius, 74
Bindweed, 9
Biscop, Benedict, 93
Boustrophedic inscription, 16
Breccia Quintiliola, 41
Bronze doors, 20
Bucchero, 49

Garceres, 64, 68
Castor, 75-77, 102
Cats in the Forum, 56
Cloacae, 18, 60
Ciivus Capitolinus, 55
Clivus Sacra Via, 64
Coins, 39
Comitium, 7
Crucifixion, fresco of, 78
Cunicoli Csesarei, 51
Curia, 7
Cypress, 9, 26

DouOLA, 19
Domitian, 47-48
Domus Fublica, 30, 45

Fasti Consularbs, 62
Ficus Ruminalis, 8
Flowers, 3
Fordicidia, 43
Forum Julium, 27
Forty Martyrs, 97
Forum of Nerya, 57
Frontinus, 102
Funecary offerings, 73

114

Gabii, 73

Galba, murder of, 47
Galleries of Csesar, 51
Gauls, the, 1 1
Gracchi, the, ii
Grisar, Padre, S.J., 87
Grottaf errata, 71

Health, Gods op, 95
Herbarium, 43
Hereon Bomuli, 56
Huelsen, Professor C, 49
Human sacrifice, 47
Hut-urns, 71

iNSORimoN, 58

Jackdaws, 76
John VII. (Pope), 84
Jutuma, Laous of, 94, 99-I03

Kalatobss Pontifioum, 28

Laous Cubtius, 3-47, 106-109
Laurels, 32
Lava quarries, 33.
Library of Tiberius, 81, 96
Ligorio Pirro, 21
Lotus, 26

Maobinus, 25
Materials, 4, 6, 64, 67
Maxentius, 23, 51, 64, 74
Minerva, Temple of, 96
MoUk talaa, 8, 44
Mosaic, 79
Museum, 56

NiOKB Latis. 7, 14, 15, 49> 51

INDEX

OOTOBBB HOBSB, 73

Orientation, 3
Osiris, 12

Peace, Altab or, 103-105

Pedestals, 9-12

Pegmata, 52

Penus Vestse, 38

Plague in the Forum, 95

Pollio, M. B., loi

Pomegranate, 63

Pottery (Proto-Corinthian), 73

Reoia, 27, 28, 70, 71, 73
Regifugium, 7» 16
Republican houses, 70
Rex Sacrorum. 7, 16
Rostra of Cesar, i, 51, 54
Rostra Flavian, 53
Rostra Vetera, 12, 17
Rushfortb, Neville {quoted), 93

Saobabium of Mabs, 32

Sacrarium of Ops, 33-34

Sacra Via, 109-112

Salii, the, 7, 32

S. Adriano, 19

SS. Cosma and Damiano, 56

S. Francesca Romana, 97

S. Maria Antiqua, 77-95

S. Maria Liberatrice, 37, 77-78,

95
S. Maria Nova, 97

SS. Quiricus and JolitU, 86, 90

S. Teodoro, 96

Sarcophagus, 93

Schola Xanthi, 55

Sepolcretum, 25, 49, 50^ 70

Statins, description by, 48

INDEX

115

Stela, 9, 12
Streuiffi Saoelluiu, I lo
Styles, 5

Styles of work, II2
Subarrfty 17
Saffibulum, 43
Snovetanrilift, 11
Sylvestro, S., 92, 95

TABBBNiE ABOENTABMC, 6 1

Tabulariam, 5
Temenos of Vests, 28
Temple of Baoohus, 63
Templum Sacrae Urbis, 69
The JErniUi, 62
Theodore, Archbishop, 93
Theodotus, 86, 88
Tholos, 32, 32
Tombs, 71, 72-73

Transveetio Equitum, 77
Tremulus, Q. M., 77

Vases, Pontifioal, 48, 50
Velaria, 52
Velia, iio-iii
Venationes, 52 ^

Venos Cloacina, 63
Venus, Temple of, 98
Vestales, 8, 26, 30, 42, 43, 54
Via Bonella, 18
Via Cavonr, 57
Victor Emmanuel II., 50
Volcanal, 24

Weabmouth, 93
Wolf-Pedestal, 22
Woods, 6, 51, 53, 61

Zaohabias, Pope, 86

THE END

^M/.V'^ lUn

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